The Big Adventures of Tiny Petra (A Minecraft: Story Mode Crack-fic)
by JHolleworth
Summary: After having a party with her friends and drinking a lot of Ivor's potions, Petra wakes up the next day to find out that she's shrunken down to the size of an ant, and she can't let anyone worry about her like this! Will Petra be able to get back to her regular size without anyone noticing that something's off about her height? (ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON WATTPAD DURING NOV 30-JAN 20)
1. Party All Night Long

**A/N: This "fanfic" (if you can even call it that, lol) is based on the "Tiny Petra" bug that Eric Stirpe revealed on his Tumblr about two months ago (as of the time this is being published). Expect this to be really cringy, out-of-character and stuff. XD**

 **Allow me to get a few notes out of the way before we start:**

 ** _\- A lot of this is from Petra's POV (point of view)._**

 ** _\- The Jesse in this story is the Caucasian male with green eyes, white shirt, red suspenders, blue jeans and black shoes._**

 ** _\- Expect to see a fair bit of Jetra (Male!Jesse X Petra) in this._**

 ** _\- I do not consider this story to be canon in any way. So imagine that this story takes place in-between Seasons 1 and 2 if you want._**

 ** _\- Like I said, prepare for some possible instances where everyone's out-of-character. Then again, I am considering this a "crack-fic", so that is to be expected. XD_**

 **Now that we've gotten all that out of the way, let's begin!**

* * *

 ** _Chapter 1: Party All Night Long_**

* * *

Hello. My name is Petra.

And if you've known me for a while now, then you'd know that I am Jesse's best friend and part of the New Order of the Stone, which consisted of Jesse, me, Lukas, Axel and Olivia.

At first, I usually gathered resources for people in exchange for a price such a Nether Star or a... Wither Skull. But as time moved on after the Wither Storm incident, I dropped that business and moved on to going on adventures with Jesse and his friends. Even if I managed to get myself into sticky situations, I knew that the New Order of the Stone would always be there to save my skin in the nick of time.

One night, Jesse decided to throw a party at the Order Hall with all of us, which was about as likely to happen as a solar eclipse or a red sun, considering we never had many of them.

You'd think we would've had a lot more of them since they managed to bring us even closer to each other as friends, but Jesse still insisted that we should keep it as a 'rare occurrence' kind of deal.

Naturally, I got a lot of enjoyment out of their parties in the past, and anything that involved my friends turned out to be a lot of fun, so I obviously agreed to join them there. And tonight turned out to be quite a funny chain of events if I do say so myself.

Me and Jesse sung along to a bunch of love songs (typically with Jesse being the tone-deaf one), Lukas tried to write fanfics in his journal in secret, Axel and Olivia exchanged a bunch of redstone and TNT crafting recipes, Radar said he would go to bed way earlier than the rest of us since he wasn't much of a night owl, and most of us who stayed up got drunk on some potions that Ivor was able to bring to the party.

After we had our fun, I went up to my room and quickly fell asleep on my bed, the effects of the potions I drank helping me drift off to Dreamland.


	2. It Sure Is A Small World Indeed

**_Chapter 2: It Sure Is A Small World Indeed..._**

* * *

When I woke up the next day and tried to adjust my eyes to the light, I noticed that the redstone lamp on the ceiling was gone. Where was it? After searching my surroundings a bit, I saw that the redstone lamp **was** on the ceiling. But... why was it so much smaller than it was last night?

And that wasn't all that was off about my room. The white pillow behind me was humongous, and the red blanket that I slept on last night was now freaking gigantic and huge! It felt like a really plushy grass field, and it seemed to stretch for miles and miles. And everything else was like this as well! The stand where I keep Miss Butter, the chests, and even the portraits of me, Jesse and our friends!

How did everything in this room grow to more than four times my size? Did I just randomly shrink to the size of an ant? I swear, if this was a side-effect of the potions we drank last night, I'm gonna have to have a word with Ivor when everything is back to normal...

"Come on... Calm down, Petra..." I assured myself, knowing that I was going to find a way to normal size sooner or later. "You may have been shrunk from drinking one of Ivor's potions, but still that doesn't mean you aren't the brave and energetic warrior you are..." Although, I **was** starting to doubt my own words as they came out of my mouth. Not even Miss Butter shrunk down with me. How was I going to defend myself when not even my favourite weapon is at my disposal?

Regardless, I started my descent down the bed. Grabbing tight of the fabric that was my giant blanket with both hands, I slowly started to climb down, carefully making sure to place my hands where they needed to be, but my fingers slipped off the blanket and I ended up falling back first onto the quartz ground.

 _CRACK!_

"Ow!"

I let out a cry of pain as my backside collided with the quartz floor.

* * *

After taking a long time to get back up and make sure my back wasn't severely damaged, I then came face to face with my next obstacle... The wooden door.

How was I going to open it? The handle's too high for me to reach it and I can't see anything that could help me get to it...

Suddenly, I started hearing earthquakes that were slowly getting louder and more violent by the second. What was happening?!

After a few seconds, the wooden door was flung open by... Was that Jesse?!

I almost gasped in shock when I saw how tall he was from this perspective. It's like he was 50 feet tall or something! Since when did Romeo bestow some of his 'prismarine giant' powers on him?!

"Jesse! Over here!" I shouted, trying to get his attention. Sure, it would be easier said than done since I was so tiny compared to him, but it was worth a shot. I even jumped up and down, waving both of my hands at him to make sure it would work.

It didn't seem to work though, because Jesse started taking big steps forward, completely unaware of my presence.

With every step Jesse took, the impact of his feet touching the floor created an earthquake effect, with a big **_BOOM!_** and causing the ground to shake, knocking me off my feet and making me fall flat on my back.

As his foot rose again, it seemed to be of the sufficient angle and position to step on me. As it started to come down, I quickly got back on my feet and dived out of the way. And just in time before Jesse's foot could accidentally squash me flat!

I've poked a bit of fun at Jesse being slightly smaller than me in the past, but I now was one to talk considering how small I was compared to Jesse now! Hell, I was roughly the size of his shoe!

* * *

He started examining my bed, looking as if he was making sure to see I was here or not. How am I going to get his attention?

"Petra? Are you awake?" His big booming voice asked. Oh, if only it was easy to get him to notice me at this size...

I walked over to his feet to see if I could get his attention again. After a while of searching my bed, most likely for my sleeping body, he turned his head to the door. Now's my chance to get him to notice me!

I ran over to the open door, hopefully the distance I am between it and Jesse will be enough to get him to notice tiny me.

"Mmmm..." The giant brunette pondered. "Maybe she's already downstairs."

Then he started taking big steps towards the door, each one making a huge tremor as his shoes hit the ground.

Then I started jumping up and down, waving my hands again, trying desperately to get his attention one last time. I even went as far to scream his name at the top of my lungs.

 ** _"JESSE!"_**

"Huh?" The giant Jesse exclaimed. He then stopped in his tracks, crouched down on his knees and looked down at the floor where I was standing. I think it worked!

His titanic eyes looked at the tiny me with a look of enthusiasm and interest written across his face. He opened his hand and laid it flat on the floor, waiting for me to stand on it, his face still written with a look of concern and worry.

Something about the idea of wanting to stand on Jesse's giant hand made me feel a little uneasy. Knowing him, I knew he wasn't going to eat me or anything, but how could I be certain he wasn't going to drop me by accident? Regardless, I stepped onto his hand and he brought me up to his gargantuan emerald eyes. I felt a bit uncomfortable staring into them at this size.

"Petra? What happened to you?" Jesse asked. "How did you get this small?"

"I don't know!" I replied. "All I remember is that I fell asleep last night, and the next morning, everything's way bigger than me, including you!"

"And how did your voice become high?" He asked me back. Great. Not only was I less than three times my regular size at this point, but now my voice was apparently so high-pitched to others.

"Again, I don't know." I answered. "I have a feeling that this happened because I got too drunk on Ivor's potions last night."

"Really?" He asked with concern. "I drank a lot of Ivor's potions last night too, and I didn't end up becoming as tiny as you. What did these particular potions look like?"

I tried recalling back to the night where I got drunk on Ivor's potions. Now that I thought about it, I **did** end up drinking a lot of his potions that had this blue-ish liquid in them.

"The potions I remember drinking..." I explained. "They all had this blue-ish colour to them..."

"Blue-ish potions, huh?" Jesse replied with surprise. "I do remember Ivor saying something about making shrinking potions in the past. I didn't really see what good they would do for us, but I thought it was an interesting idea at the time."

"Shrinking potions?!" I exclaimed. "Of course! Why wouldn't Ivor be responsible for this?!"

"Well, this isn't good." He murmured. "Do you want to tell the others about this?"

"No!" I shouted. "You can't speak about this to anyone! I don't want them to worry about me..." I looked down at the palm of the hand I was standing on. "Not like this..."

"Well, is there anything you want me to do about it?" Jesse asked.

"You could hide me." I answered.

"Hide you? Where?" He asked back.

"In your shirt pocket maybe?" I suggested, pointing to it.

He looked at me like he wasn't certain about this, but shortly after, he sighed and said "Okay..."

He picked me up with the thumb and index finger of his other hand and slowly placed me about a foot below the entrance of his shirt pocket. The hand that I was standing on before then opened the pocket up for me to enter it. I almost expected him to just drop me into it, but instead, he slowly planted me into it, his fingers letting go of me when I was touching the very bottom of his pocket. It was very cramped and narrowed in there, but since I didn't want anyone to know about this, it would have to do.


	3. A GIANT Cinnamon Roll

**_Chapter 3: A GIANT Cinnamon Roll_**

* * *

When I was put inside Jesse's shirt pocket, he started to walk out of my room and into the hallway where the other bedrooms were. The visibility of the environment from inside his pocket wasn't much, but since I didn't want anyone to see me like this, I suppose it was better than being spotted on Jesse's shoulder out in the open or something.

Even though I couldn't see much from where I was, I saw that after like eight or so seconds, Jesse stopped walking to face the door to the main hallway. He pushed it open, walked through it, and surprisingly enough, no-one was there. I suppose now would be a good time for Jesse to bring me out of his-

 **"Jesse?!"**

We both heard a child-like voice that sounded familiar to us. Jesse turned around to face the voice, and I saw that Radar was just behind Jesse, calling out to him. He looked rather concerned and was holding his notepad and pen in his shaking hands, and he was dressed in his usual blue jeans, green and white jacket, blue tie, and even his signature black glasses. Hopefully he won't notice that I'm probably making such an unusual shape in Jesse's shirt pocket...

"Oh. Hi, Radar." Jesse greeted in a casual tone.

"Do you know where Petra is?" The tan angel asked the tall brunette I was hiding in. "I've searched high and low in every possible spot she could be and I can't find her anywhere!"

"Come on Jesse, don't tell him the truth..." I anxiously said to myself, hands clenched together.

"Petra? Oh, uh..." Jesse pondered. "I... haven't seen her. Not since last night."

"Did you even find her sleeping in her room?" Radar asked again.

It took Jesse a while before he could give Radar an answer to his next question.

"Hmmm... No." Jesse simply lied. "I checked her room this morning and... she wasn't there. Not asleep in bed, not sitting in a corner cuddling Miss Butter like she's love with it..."

I almost frowned in embarrassment as he said that...

"I just haven't found her anywhere." Jesse ended his answer. I sighed and felt a bunch of weight lift off my shoulders as he cleared my name. I knew I could count on Jesse to hide the fact that I shrunk from our friends.

"Hey Jesse... What's that in your shirt pocket?" Radar asked, pointing at it with a face of curiosity. My blood almost froze the moment Radar said that. If he were to put his hand in there and pluck me out, my cover would be blown. "It looks kinda odd... Can I feel it?" His right hand then slowly started to leave his notepad and approached to touch the pocket I was hiding in, his index finger sticking out from all the others. Please don't touch me, please don't touch me... I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

"Whoa Radar! Personal space, buddy!" I heard Jesse shout out. I quickly opened my eyes to see that Jesse had moved Radar's approaching arm away from his shirt pocket. Oh thank Notch for that...

"Sorry, Jesse!" Radar apologised, putting both his hands together and dropping his notepad and pen by accident. "My notepad!" He exclaimed, quickly grabbing it and his pen off the floor and placing it back in his hands where it was before he dropped it.

I have to admit... Even though it was kinda terrifying to nearly be touched by Radar, who was unaware of the fact that I was now tiny, he still looked as cute as he ever did when he accidentally dropped something.

"No Radar, don't be sorry." Jesse assured Radar, grabbing our tanned intern's arms with both of his hands. "You obviously know I like having you as my intern, and I would never fire you even if I wanted to, but you've just gotta remember that even I have my limits when it comes to certain things." He let go of Radar's arms.

"Right, Jesse. I won't do it again." Radar said with an innocent-looking bow. "Is there anywhere else you want me to visit? Do you think anyone needs my help?"

"I think Nell said something about needing more supplies for her surf shop..." Jesse answered. "Maybe you could help her a bit?" He gave the final part of his answer with a shrug.

"I'm on it!" Radar exclaimed with excitement. And with that, he quickly ran out of the Order Hall and into the outskirts of Beacontown. But before the big door closed behind him, he looked at Jesse with a peculiar look on his face, probably signalling that he was suspicious of what Jesse was telling him. Regardless, after he turned his head away from Jesse and let the door finally close behind him, that was my cue to tell Jesse it was time for him to let me out of his pocket.

* * *

"Hey Jesse... You can let me out now!" I said in a reasonable volume. His hand reached inside his shirt pocket and searched around for me. As soon as he felt my small body with his huge fingers, he took me out of the pocket and laid me onto the soft surface of his other hand.

"Nice job, Petra." The giant man in red suspenders complimented. "What was it like in there?"

I gave him the most honest answer I could.

"It felt very cramped and isolated in your pocket. It also felt worse whenever you were walking, but since we have to keep this a secret from everyone, it'll have to do. It's certainly a good thing that I'm not claustrophobic." I held out my right hand for a high-five with a massive smile on my face, even though I had no idea how well this was going to end.

He let out a delicate laugh as he lightly placed his four-foot hand on my gloved one that was practically mouse-sized in comparison. I laughed too when I saw how monstrous that one hand was compared to my whole body. We even continued to laugh about it when both our hands broke apart. Then Jesse decided to get all serious again and ask me about how we were going to fix this.

"So, Petra... How do you suppose we get you back to normal?"

I looked up at the ceiling, staring into space as I tried to think of a logical answer for how I could grow back into normal size. After about a minute though, Jesse managed to think of one for me. He said...

"You told me this morning that you getting shrunk was the result of one of Ivor's potions, right? So I'm thinking... If he really is the one that got you into this mess, maybe he's the one that can get you out of it too!" He beamed as he got the last words out of his mouth.

"Good thinking, Jesse!" I said, appreciating how well thought out his suggestion was.

"Haha! No problem, Petra!" He replied, bringing his index finger close to my cheek. The feeling of his finger touching my cheek caused me to burst out laughing, make my sides convulse and make me fall over on my back.

"Stop it, please!" I laughed as I tried to compose myself. "That tickles!" I shoved his finger away from me to show that I have had enough of being tickled, as much as I enjoyed it. I was able to regain control of my ability to laugh at will after a few seconds, finally calming down and able to stand up properly again.

"Well, what are we waiting for, Jesse?" I asked. "Let's go over to Ivor's house!"

"Alright! Let's go!" He replied, grabbing me by the waist and putting me back in his shirt pocket so we wouldn't alert anyone passing by in Beacontown.

And with that, Jesse ran off with me in his pocket and we were both off to Ivor's house.


	4. Not What I Was Expecting

**_Chapter 4: Not What I Was Expecting..._**

* * *

Like I expected, it only took me and Jesse about 20 seconds to get to Ivor's house. It was only a few yards away from the Order Hall and Reuben's memorial.

I climbed out of Jesse's shirt pocket to take a peek at Ivor's masterpiece with him. The base of the house was constructed out of nether bricks made to resemble tentacles, while the top mainly consisted of stone bricks with several lapis lazuli blocks and a lot of vines formed to look like a skull shape.

At first, the house was made to serve as a lava deposit, in case people ever ran out of it. But since so many people protested that they could accidentally burn themselves if they weren't careful, Ivor came to his senses a bit and reluctantly turned it into a water house for the sake of their benefit and safety. But hopefully he should still have all of his alchemist equipment and everything.

"Do you want me to keep you in my pocket as I climb up this ladder, Petra?" Jesse asked looking at me and pointing to the ladder behind him.

"Yes, Jesse…" I said in a calm tone, sinking back into his shirt pocket as both of my hands let go. "This seems like the safest place for me to be if you're gonna do something like that."

"Alright. Just be sure to hold on if you think you're starting to slip out." He told me.

I just gave him a nod, even though he probably couldn't see me from in here. I then felt like some invisible force was throwing me up and down in his pocket as he started climbing the ladder to Ivor's house. I held on tight to the soft walls of white fabric like he said so I could minimise how much this would happen to me.

Soon enough, this feeling stopped and I was free to let go of the fabric I was holding onto. Jesse's hand reached into his pocket and picked me out again, putting me on top of his shoulder alongside his enormous smiling head.

Jesse's attention diverted from me to Ivor's iron door as he knocked on it about four times before waiting for him to let us in.

"Come on Ivor, please be in…" I whispered to myself.

The iron door was then opened, and as I expected, the alchemist in his green robe was there waiting for us.

"Jesse!" Ivor called out his name as he gave a mercy face of joy.

"Hi, Ivor!" Jesse greeted back as he waved his hand at Ivor.

Ivor quickly noticed that pint-sized me was sitting on Jesse's shoulder and his face of joy changed to one of confusion. "And… Petra?" He said with bewilderment. I gave him a nervous chuckle as I felt my skin go pale. He approached my tiny body further, examining how small I had become.

"What on earth happened to you?" Ivor asked, intrigued in how I got this small. "How did you get so tiny?"

"You think we can have this conversation inside your house?" I asked, shrugging off his size-related questions as rhetorical. "I don't want anyone else to notice me like this." I placed my hand on my black sleeve as I finished my response.

"Why yes!" Ivor responded with glee. He backed up from us so we could walk into his house. Once we were inside, the alchemist flipped a switch beside him and the iron door slammed shut.

* * *

The interior of Ivor's house consisted of brewing stands on a wooden table, chests full of empty bottles and potion ingredients, plenty of books on shelves, and a water deposit mechanism which Olivia built for him... and looked way more complicated than it needed to be honestly.

"So Petra, what happened to you?" Ivor asked me for what felt like the hundredth time. "You're about as small as a silverfish!"

"Yeah, I know!" I acknowledged, my arms spread wide.

"We suspect that it has something to do with the potions you brought to our party last night." Jesse said.

"My potions?!" Ivor barked in shock.

"Yeah." I said. "These potions in particular had this blue-ish liquid in them. I don't know if that'll give you any idea of what they were, but that's the best I can describe them."

Ivor looked away from me and Jesse as if he was lost in thought for a second, then he looked back at us to give his word on the subject.

"I didn't bring any of my shrinking potions to the party, did I?!" he asked hysterically.

"Shrinking potions? Is that what they were, Ivor?" I asked out of curiosity, climbing my way down to Jesse's hand as I did so. Jesse had a good idea of where I wanted to stand, so he opened his hand so he could bring me to a decent height with Ivor.

"Oh no…" Ivor groaned, wanting to bury his face in his hands at this point. "I didn't even have time to examine the potions before I sent them to the party!"

Jesse set me down on the table behind him as he continued the conversation with Ivor for me. "We came here to ask if you have some sort of antidote on you." He said.

"Unfortunately, no… I don't." Ivor sighed, looking down at his feet ashamed of what he's done to me. He brought his head back up as he continued his speech. "I did try to make an antidote, but no matter what combinations of ingredients I tried, my test subjects wouldn't grow back to normal size. So I gave up. Exactly why I never destroyed those shrinking potions is beyond me."

"Can you at least try again for Petra?" Jesse asked with genuine, friendly demand in his voice. "Please?"

"Okay, Jesse… I'll try…" Ivor said as he placed his hand on Jesse's shoulder and put a smile on his face. He broke apart and started to walk around the place shortly after. "But finding the right combination of ingredients might take me days! Maybe even months!" The giant alchemist slammed his hand down on the table as he said the last word of his sentence, knocking me back with this earthquake effect and nearly crushing me in the process. I slowly placed my hands on the wooden surface and got back up on my own two feet as I ran back to face Ivor.

"Hey Ivor, be careful!" I shouted while raising my clenched fist at him. "You almost friggin' crushed me! I thought you'd be more careful now that I'm this tiny!"

"Oh! Sorry, Petra!" Ivor said, taking his hand off the table. "I didn't see you there!"

"Anyway, how long did you say making an antidote would take?" I asked out of curiosity, not being able to catch what he said the first time around.

"Days or maybe even months." He answered. My jaw dropped when he gave me his answer. That was not the answer I was expecting at all… "Please tell me you're exaggerating on that!" I said desperation in my voice.

"Sadly, I'm not…" Ivor said all miserable and grief-stricken about it. "There are too many ingredient combinations for me to try! I could've tried over 600 of them a week from now and I still wouldn't have found the right one to bring you back to normal!"

"Well, that wasn't the answer I was expecting…" I said with notable cracks in my voice. "Is there anything else you can do for me in the mean-time?" My voice cracks were able to stop as I continued my sentence.

"Well…" Ivor began, walking over to grab a chest behind him. He placed the chest on the table in front of me. The chest was not much different from all the others, except it had a golden handle and the writing " _Tiny Blocks_ " engraved on it.

"Tiny Blocks?" I read off the chest wondering what that meant.

"Blocks that are small enough to fit in the palm of hands like yours." Ivor told me. "These were one of the few contributions I made towards those who were follow victims of my shrinking potions." He shoved the chest a wee bit closer to me. "They're all yours, girl."

"Thank you, Ivor. Hopefully we'll hear from you about the antidote soon." I smiled at him.

* * *

That following night, Jesse and I were back in my room with the chest of _Tiny Blocks_ that Ivor gave us. Jesse had locked the door to make sure that no-one would come in and notice I wasn't as big as I used to be.

The gargantuan, hulking brunette opened up the _Tiny Blocks_ chest and poured the contents onto the floor about a metre beside me, and before I knew it, I was staring at all the pieces like a blank canvas with the will to build whatever I wanted.

* * *

After an hour, I managed to build a house that was perfect for my ant-sized self. I gazed at my masterpiece with a massive smile on my face and so did Jesse. The exterior was made of spruce wood planks which all laid along a cobblestone frame, with two wooden doors in the middle. There were also two glass windows on both floors, and I even went as far to build a fancy roof out of stairs, with a little help from my titanic brunette friend in red suspenders of course.

I went inside the house to see what else I did with my artistic touch. The ground floor's terrain was made of oak wood, which was the only type of wood separating it from the over-abundance of spruce I used. In the middle was a couch made of two jungle wood planks acting as arm rests, and one slab of the same material. There was also a kitchen where I could place my food into one of four furnaces, which would prove to be very efficient if I wanted to cook several things at once. I also laid down a crafting table there where I was able to create a brand new miniature version of my signature golden sword, 'Miss Butter'. And the second floor was mainly just a bedroom with a double sized bed near the wall.

By the time I considered my house finished, the sun had set and the moon was out, the most obvious sign that me and Jesse were ready to go for bed.

I plopped on my spacious bed with my red blanket underneath my body and started to yawn… Jesse's hands tore my roof off with a loud rumbling noise so he could say what he always says to me before the day is done…

"Good night, Petra."

I gazed into his beautiful emerald eyes… "Hey Jesse, can you bring one of your fingers down here please?" I asked.

"Okay, sure." He said with that beaming smile I loved so much. He sticked his index finger into my bedroom and closer toward me. When it was a good distance away from me, I gave the finger a big hug and planted a passionate kiss on it.

"Aww…" Jesse said with affection of what I just did. He brought his finger back and started to slowly place the roof back where it was.

"Good night, Jesse." About five seconds after I said that to him, the roof went back in place with a clicking sound. I flipped the switch beside me to turn the light off, and with that said and done, I managed to fall asleep with no issues whatsoever.

Maybe being this tiny won't be so bad after all...


	5. The Dirty Brute

**_Chapter 5: The Dirty Brute_**

* * *

The next morning, I opened my eyes with a yawn and rubbed my hands on my eyes to clear some of my vision. One of my hands flicked the switch beside me to turn the light back on. Adjusting my eyes to the light took quite a while, but after I did that, I began my descent downstairs and into the kitchen.

Only one problem though… I didn't have any food to eat. Then again, the chest that Ivor gave me yesterday didn't say " _Tiny Food_ " on it. So the only thing I could do about this dilemma was to have Jesse sneak some out of our kitchen for me.

I walked outside my miniature toy-like house, and as I suspected, the colossal brunette was there opening the door to my room. He entered the room, closed the titanic door behind him in case anyone were to walk in without our permission, and crouched down at my small body to check on me.

"Good morning, Petra." He beamed at me.

"Hey, Jesse." I responded with a yawn.

"How did sleeping in your new house go?" He asked.

"I managed to sleep like a log." I replied with contentment. "It might take me a while to get used to my new life in there, but other than that, I don't really have any complaints."

"Well, is there anything you'd like me to do for you?" He inquired with that signature goofy smile on his face.

"Yes…" I slowly said in embarrassment. "I… don't have any food. Do you think you could sneak me something from the kitchen? Maybe you could get me some bread or an apple? Please, Jesse?"

He gave me a hearty chuckle before picking me up with his fingers and bringing me to his face. "Of course I can, my little redhead." He said with his silly grin still on his face and stroking my auburn hair with his fingers. "Do you want me to take you with me like I've done before?" He asked.

"Yes please." I happily responded. And with that, the big Caucasian gladly placed me in my usual hiding spot: his shirt pocket. Sure, it was kind of cramped and isolated in there, but it was better than being spotted out in the open.

Immediately after I managed to find myself some comfy spots in his pocket, he started walking out of my room, down the corridor where everyone else's bedrooms were and into the main hallway.

* * *

Again, the hallway looked pretty barren, with no-one but me and Jesse in sight. But then again, I shouldn't really say that since Radar could be behind us like he was yesterday.

Jesse approached the door to the kitchen, and slowly reached out for the handle, only for it to be opened in an instant by Axel. The huge, muscular brute immediately gave Jesse a tight hug with his welcome arms, the pressure he was giving him making me feel like I was going to get squeezed to death at any second.

"Aaaahh! Help me! I feel like my lungs are being crushed!" I screamed out in pain from how much pressure Axel's hug was forcing onto my body. Seriously, his hugs were exceedingly tight for a tough guy! Eventually, the hug ended and I let out several sighs of relief as I tried to recover from the ridiculous amount of pressure Axel gave me.

"Hey Jesse…" Axel pondered. "Was that you saying your lungs were being crushed? It may not have sounded like you, but still…"

"No Axel, no." Jesse cleared up. "You're pretty self-aware that your hugs laid a ton of pressure on me in the past, but I never said they felt like you were crushing my lungs…" He gave the brute an anxious guffaw as he finished his response.

"Well, who else could've said it?" The beast asked back. "There's no-one else in this room yet besides us…" I started moving around the insides of Jesse's shirt pocket in slight dismay and panic, and that's when Axel noticed with his beady black eyes that I was making some kind of bulge shape in Jesse's pocket. " _Aw crap…_ " I whispered to myself.

"Hey Jesse…" Axel started, pointing at the pocket and causing me to freeze and shiver in shock where I was. "What's that strange shape in your pocket?"

"What strange shape? I don't know what you're talking about, Axel." The brunette tried to fib, giving another anxious chortle at the end of his sentence.

"I wanna see it for myself." Axel's hand slowly started to reach into Jesse's shirt pocket, and that's when I knew I couldn't do anything to prevent this.

" **Oh no!** " I screamed in fear, trying my best to divert my eyesight away from Axel's gigantic curious hand. His fingers took a feel at my body, and after taking some time, my hand tightly wrapped itself around me, once again placing tons of pressure on my body. I let out a shriek of agony as the big guy took me out of Jesse's pocket, refusing to loosen his grip on me no matter what. He brought me up to his humongous head, making me too startled to even make any major movements, not that I could actually do that when he was squeezing my body to the diameter of a pencil.

"What is this?" The curious giant asked, finally loosening his grip on me to check my body from every possible angle.

"Yeah… Some of our fans have been sending us some quality souvenirs of us, Axel!" Jesse played along, placing one of his hands behind his head. "One of them sent me a Petra action figure last night!" His cheeks turned a dark shade of red to give a clear sign of his fibbing, which Axel didn't seem like he was picking up, much to my relief. I tried to play along with Jesse's lies too, maintaining the most generic ' _kick-ass action figure_ ' pose I could think of: arms clenched into fists and placed in front of my face while giving the impression that I was standing up.

Axel closely examined my form up-close, his black eyeballs shifting back and forth from left to right. Good Notch, it was so hard to maintain a pose when you were in the hands of someone who was fifty feet taller than you… My anxiety slowly started to kick in the longer he stared at me.

"I gotta say…" Axel started, placing his big finger on my blue tunic and down to my black boots. "Whoever made this really managed to get Petra's smallest details down…"

"I agree." Jesse joined in, shifting alongside Axel to take a good look at me with him. "The guy who sent me this has really got Petra's look on point. Not one detail feels out of place." He said while winking at me. I didn't want to wink back at the brunette, since that would blow my cover as an ' _action figure_ '.

"Can I move her arms away from her face?" Axel asked. He then placed his huge claws on my arms and made it so that they were now facing downward beside my chest. I broke apart my fists so I could place my own hands on my hips. It was kind of a noticeable movement on my part, but Axel remained oblivious to this movement that wasn't of his command.

"And, I really have to know…" Axel contemplated. "Can her clothes come off?" **He wants to take off my clothes?! OH MY GOD! I knew Axel was always curious to check every small detail of the action figures he gets, but I never knew he was this perverted about it!**

Endless beads of sweat started to drip down my forehead as his hand started to take off my tunic, exposing my black bra. My mouth suddenly opened and I started panting as if I was having a panic attack. "Ooh, yes…" Axel purred. "Can I even go the full mile while I'm at it?" Jesse looked absolutely petrified, afraid that Axel was really going to strip me down all the way. Before the sick brute's fingers could even touch my bra, I screamed in fright as loud as I could and rolled out of the way to avoid Axel's sadistic hooks. He looked at me with a face of bewilderment as I put my tunic back on. Now I've done it.

"An action figure with a mind of it's own?" He shouted in surprise.

" **AXEL, YOU PERVERT! LEAVE MY BODY ALONE!** " I screamed in anger as I held on tight to my blue tunic with both hands. I quickly let go of the tunic since I already managed to put it back on, ran over towards Axel's green jacket, jumped off the rough terrain that was his hand, grabbed onto the soft attire, and quickly climbed down his jacket, tan pants and trampolined off his big toe at the speed of light. I sticked the landing and started to run away from the ginormous pervert.

* * *

"Hey, it's getting away!" Axel exclaimed, pointing at me. With no time to think, he quickly ran after me, like a hungry cat who wanted to eat the mouse it was chasing for it's dinner. The brute dived on the floor and tried to catch me in his dirty hands, but I barely managed to avoid them by weaving to the left.

Taking a look behind me, I saw Axel had already gotten back up off the floor, continuing his pursuit after me with open arms. He kept diving on the floor when he was close to me, but his pattern was so predictable that I was able to avoid his grasp by weaving to the left and right every single time. It's like he was the first boss of this video game of mine, and I was already making it look like even a two-year-old wouldn't have any problems beating him.

Soon enough though, I was starting to run out of steam, desperate to find a place where I could hide and Axel couldn't reach. After quickly examining the environment while avoiding Axel's embrace for what felt like the hundredth time, I found a hole in the quartz wall that only I could fit in. With the last ounces of breath that I had left, I quickly ran for the hole and dived into the darkness.

Axel wanted to prove that he still wouldn't give up however, and tried to force his hand into the hole that I was hiding in, but his massive claw was too big to even reach into how deep I was. I laughed in amusement as Axel repeatedly tried to grab me out of the smallest hole in the world. "What's the matter, Axel?" I taunted. "Looks like you're too big, and I'm too small for you to pick out!" I howled out in laughter, rolling on the floor.

"Aw crap!" The brute exclaimed. "It's gone under this hole! I can't reach it!" He finally moved his hand back out, accepting the fact that he's just been beaten by a pint-sized female redhead.

"Hey Jesse… Can you reach it for me?" Axel severely asked. I saw the brunette's black shoes walk over to the hole I was hiding in, and shortly after, he laid down on the floor and reached his hand out to get me. Or was he…? Instead, it seemed like he was playing along, moving his hand along the sides of the wall once it went as far as it could go, just for the sake of satisfying Axel. After about ten seconds, Jesse put his hand outside of the hole and simply said… "It's no use, Axel. It's gone too deep in the hole."

"Aww…" Axel said in disappointment. I'm not gonna lie, hearing him say that made me feel kinda bad… All he wanted was to explore every possibility of my 'action figure' body, and I just ran away from him in fear of being stripped down… I could swear I felt a tear going down my cheek as I heard him say that…

"Come on, Axel…" Jesse said, bringing him away from the hole and over to the exit. "Let's see if I can get you another one…" They both walked out of the hall and into the outskirts of Beacontown, the door closing behind them like it did to Radar yesterday.

* * *

When they were both gone, I peeked over both my shoulders and saw that no-one else was in the hall with me. As I confirmed this, I walked out of the hole and was free to walk wherever I wanted. But without Jesse by my side, hiding from my enormous friends wasn't going to be an easy task for me.

Brushing off the anxious feelings I had from being chased by Axel, I slowly walked my way over to the kitchen. But then I heard the sound of the large door behind me opening, along with loud tremors, and I was knocked off the ground and onto my feet again…

Shortly, the tremors stopped, and that's when I heard a child-like voice call my name…

 ** _"Petra?"_**


	6. The Not-So-Small Intern

**_Chapter 6: The Not-So-Small Intern_**

* * *

When Jesse and Axel were gone, I peeked over both my shoulders and saw that no-one else was in the hall with me. As I confirmed this, I walked out of the hole and was free to walk wherever I wanted. But without Jesse by my side, hiding from my enormous friends wasn't going to be an easy task for me.

Brushing off the anxious feelings I had from being chased by Axel, I slowly walked my way over to the kitchen. But then I heard the sound of the large door behind me opening, along with loud tremors, and I was knocked off the ground and onto my feet again…

Shortly, the tremors stopped, and that's when I heard a child-like voice call my name…

 ** _"Petra?"_**

I slowly turned myself around, completely terror-stricken…

The person who called my name behind me was… Radar.

I felt my emotions starting to calm down a bit when I laid my chocolate brown eyes on the curious intern.

"Why are you so small?" He asked, placing his flat hand on the ground for me to walk onto it. When I stood in the middle of his rather soft and plushy palm, he brought me up to his glasses and examined my body in mild confusion.

I have never observed Radar this up-close at my newfound size before… Staring at the intern while I was the size of a mouse made me feel a little uneasy, but since nothing detracted from his usual cute appearance and attitude, I felt just as safe and relaxed around him as I do with Jesse.

"You might not believe this, Radar…" I started, somehow catching his interest. "But during that party we had two nights ago, I drank a lot of Ivor's shrinking potions and… Well…" I gave a brief pause before finishing my answer. "Here am I now." I ended, throwing my hands up and down beside my head.

"Well, at least now I know you didn't just run away from here…" The pretty assistant said in relief. "Did I accidentally hurt you yesterday? I wasn't aware that you were this tiny until now so…" He started scratching the back of his head as he became lost for words.

"No Radar, you didn't hurt me by accident yesterday." I cleared up with a grin on my face. "Although, you did nearly touch me."

"Since when?" He asked out of curiosity.

"Last morning when I just found out that I shrunk to the size of an ant…" I began. "The only person that I could trust to keep this a secret from you guys was Jesse. He's my best friend and he's saved my life plenty of times before so…" I just realised that I was only giving a big monologue at this point and stopped talking. All I wanted was to just get to the point for him already.

"Basically… When you wanted to check Jesse's shirt pocket yesterday, you nearly managed to blow my cover right away…" I said in embarrassment, placing my hand behind my hair.

"So that's what that weird shape in Jesse's pocket was…" The cute apprentice said with realisation.

"Yeah… Sorry for not telling you sooner, Radar." I apologised with a frown, signifying how much I felt disappointed with myself. "It's just that… Jesse was the only person I could keep my secret safe with…"

"Oh no, Petra! Don't be sorry!" Radar assured me, gradually becoming more shaky as he continued talking. "If Jesse is the only person you can put your trust in, just… don't worry about it!" He stopped shaking the moment as he finished his sentence. "That didn't come out the way I intended it to, did it?" He inquired anxiously, starting his act of shakiness yet again.

"Haha… You're still as cute as you've ever been when you're nervous." I reminded the intern for what felt like the thousandth time in my life.

"Anyway… What was happening before I came in?" Radar asked. "I heard what sounded like high-pitched screaming and people thrashing around the place…"

"We ran into Axel this morning…" I began my statement on the matter. "Jesse was going to sneak me something out of the kitchen since I had no food to eat this morning, but the big guy was pretty much waiting there for my giant friend…" I stopped talking for a bit so the tanned cutie could keep up with what I was saying.

"Anyway…" I resumed. "After I nearly got squeezed to death by one of the big guy's hugs, he noticed that I was hiding in Jesse's shirt pocket, so he takes me out, thinks that I'm this brand new Petra action figure, examines my body from every possible angle, checks for points of articulation, and what's the last thing he does? He tries stripping me naked!"

"Oh my god, really?!" Radar gasped in shock, his face turning a deep shade of red.

"Yeah!" I exclaimed. "I knew Axel was always the type of guy who would search for whatever possibilities his action figures would allow… But I never knew he could become so perverted about it! The very thought of him wanting to see if he can take off plastic women's clothes off almost makes me want to vomit! Exactly how Olivia became BFFs with such a dirty, sickening man is way beyond me!" I almost fell to my knees as I ended my epic rant of disgust and cringed.

"Geez…" Radar moaned, looking he wanted to bury his face in his hands right now. "I never knew Axel's brain was so disgusting!"

"Yeah…" I sighed. "Anyway, do you think you could get me some breakfast? It's overdue thanks to Axel's wild goose chase with me…"

"Wait here." Radar said, placing me on an empty trophy stand and walking off by himself into the kitchen. After a short amount of time, he came walking back out of the kitchen with a cookie in his hand. He crouched down at my small form, broke a piece of the cookie off and held it out in front of me. "Do you want it, Petra?" He beamed at me with an adorable grin on his face.

"Yes please." I answered, gladly taking the small piece off him. The size of the piece was quite ideal for little ol' pocket-sized me. It wasn't too big or too small. I laid it down on the stand and started nibbling away at it. It tasted just as delightful as it did when I was normal-sized. The feeling of having the crumbs of the cookie enter my mouth was so heavenly I couldn't stop myself from getting it all down me in under a minute. After I ate all of the piece that Radar broke off for me, I sighed in satisfaction and gave my tummy a contented pat before jumping onto Radar's soft palm again and climbing up his arm to hug his cheek. "Thank you, Radar." I complimented the intern.

"Aww… you're welcome, Petra." Radar thanked me, closing his eyes in appreciation and stroking my hair with his index finger. "Is your secret safe with me?" He asked, waiting for my approval.

"Yes, it is, Radar." I gladly confirmed. "Yes, it is…" I nuzzled into his cheek some more, thankful for the favour he just did for me…


	7. My Nightmare Is A Reality

**_Chapter 7: My Nightmare Is A Reality_**

* * *

 ** _A/N: Get ready to cringe, people, because a certain someone's behaviour to about to get REALLY bad._**

* * *

That following night, Jesse was watching me walk into my small house with his giant emerald eyes as I briefly closed my chocolate brown eyes and yawned into my gloved hand. I sluggishly walked up the stairs to my bedroom and slouched my tired body onto the comfy bed, exhausted from all the events that happened today. Jesse tore the roof off to tuck me in and give me a kiss on the forehead with his hulking lips. The warmth of his chops smooching my brow felt just as blissful and dreamy as it did when we were doing lip-to-lip kisses at normal size. He broke the kiss after a few seconds, closed his eyes for a bit and gave me a delighted smile.

"Good night, my little warrior. Sweet dreams." He cooed at me, tickling my tummy with his index finger. I giggled from all the sensations that came to my body as he stroked my belly. He placed his finger away from me and out of my bedroom, giving me the chance to talk back to him.

"Good night, Jesse. My cute little angel, you." I said with a blush, happily waving my hand at him. The giant brunette placed the roof back where it was, turned out the light for my regular room, and I did likewise by flicking the light switch beside me.

With a final exhausted yawn, I tried dosing off to Dreamland, only to be rudely interrupted by… Who was talking outside my room?

* * *

I jumped out of bed, placed himself against the wooden wall and diverted my ears' attention to both of the voices that were coming from outside my room.

"And then it just ran into a hole in the wall so that I couldn't get it out!" I heard a brawny male voice shout out loud. It was Axel. The same freak who wanted to… Yeah, let's just try and forget about that, shall we?

"Well, I'd do the same thing too if you started taking off my clothes when I least expected it!" I heard Olivia's voice scream back at Axel. "What is wrong with you, Axel?!"

"Hey babe, I'm sorry!" Axel tried to apologise. "I just wanted to-"

"Don't you ' _babe_ ' me!" Olivia interrupted the brute's sentence with what sounded like a savage tone in her voice. "I swear you have the mentality of a teenager who wants to get laid so early into his life! Just act your age, for Notch's sake!"

The big guy sounded like he was lost for words when Olivia finished shouting at him. Yeah, that's right, Olivia! You tell his sorry, perverted ass!

"I said I was sorry!" The brute claimed, babbling on like he was going to burst into tears at any moment. "I just like to see what kind of possibilities the action figures I get can allow and… I just happen to find the female body attractive to my eye!"

"Sorry, Axel…" The black engineer admitted, the tone of her voice indicating that she feels like she went a bit too far. "I'm just so cross with you! I never knew you were this sick in the head until now! You even said that you didn't feel like you were ready for us to begin a 'mother and father' relationship! I knew I shouldn't have educated you about the human body!"

"Look Olivia, I said I was sorry!" Axel shouted, crying like a baby. Not gonna lie, I still felt kinda bad for him… "I promise I won't do anything like that again! Really, I promise! I don't know what I was thinking when I did that!" The beast kept sniffing in sadness as he continued his apology to his yin's yang.

"Don't cry, Axel." The techno-girl assured her slightly disturbed sweetheart. "I just… don't want you to walk down a disgusting road with your current mentality. Just… try to abandon your dirty thoughts for all of us, okay?"

"I will." He sobbed.

"Thank you." The redstone obsessed geek gleefully said. "Let's go get some sleep, explosion man."

"Right behind you." Axel said, finally calmed down, which was followed by the sound of a door closing.

And after that, their voices completely died down, so I was free to plop myself back into bed, tuck myself in, and take a one-way train to my dream world.

* * *

After what didn't even feel like a minute, I heard the giant door to my room creak open, and the massive redstone lamp outside my small house turned itself on not too soon after that. This made a gasp of panic escape from my mouth, followed by a lot of weight dropping onto my shoulders. I flicked the light switch beside me back on, slowly crawled out of my bed, and walked over to one of the glass windows. I found unable to move anywhere else when I planted both of my feet on the ground at that particular spot. And for good reason… Axel was inside my room!

The humongous beast gazed around my room like he was just curious to see what it looked like, but then he diverted his attention to my two-foot house, his black eyes focusing on the glass window I was staring through!

"Crap!" I blurted, running back to my bed and hiding myself under the blanket. Now I was friggin' terrified! If he tried to strip me this morning, I couldn't possibly imagine what he was going to do to me now!

"Huh? What was that? I could've sworn it looked just like Petra…" His loud, scary voice boomed. "And what is this tiny house doing here in her room?" He slowly started to forcefully tear the roof off with his bare hands!

"I've gotta hide!" I screamed, jumping out of bed yet again and running downstairs into the kitchen. Hopefully the sicko won't find me here…

The sound of wood breaking was a sign that the roof was now torn off. This horrifying noise was followed by the sound of Axel's dirty, monstrous hands banging on the second floor, searching everywhere for what he could find up there. Even if it was someone else other than Axel searching around this place, I would still be as frightened as I was right now!

I kept panting constantly to calm myself down, but seeing one of Axel's curious claws find it's way downstairs did not help at all. The big hand caught the red couch and squeezed it until it was as flat as an empty balloon. Then the dangerous hook weaved over to the kitchen doors… I was afraid that Axel was going to find a way to open them, but instead, his hand just simply felt them, and it retracted as soon as he touched the doors!

I gave a big sigh of relief as his hand left my house, but then, I suddenly felt my house start to move on it's own, tilting and turning at random!

"Whoa!" I blurted out in shock as the entire building turned a complete 180 degrees and caused me to fall flat in my back! All of the chests and furnaces fell down with me, and some of them nearly came close to crushing my arms and legs!

"Oh my god!" I screamed when I saw how close I was to getting hurt by own appliances.

My heart was pounding out of my chest now, and the house started to turn again, forcing me and my things out of the kitchen and onto one of the glass windows in the living room! The weight of the chests and furnaces smashed the window completely, making fall me back first onto Axel's knee and sticking a painful landing on his foot with my face.

* * *

"Owww…" I moaned, rolling off of the rough surface of Axel's foot and landing right beside it.

"Hey, it's that Petra action figure I lost this morning!" The big, hulking giant said, putting my house down, and grabbing me with his ghoulish mitt.

"Ahh!" I shouted as his hand embraced around my tiny body, too tight for me to breath regularly. The perverted sicko brought me up to his face with a devilish grin, making me really afraid of what he was going to do to me now…

"Let's see just how many details your creator put into you, shall we?" He breathed into my ears in a scary tone.

His fingers started by taking off my blue striped bandana, revealing all of my red hair. I gave out a gasp of shock as he threw it behind him and onto the floor. Then he started doing the same thing with my blue tunic and black shorts, exposing me in my matching bra and panties.

" **AXEL, WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME?!** " I screeched as loud as I could, desperately wanting an answer regarding his sickening and perverted mindset.

But he completely ignored my call and continued to take off my whole attire… My black combat boots, my matching socks, my fingerless glove, even the sleeve that I kept on my right arm all the time! The only thing he didn't bother to take off was my bra and panties, much to my relief of not wanting my privates to be exposed. The diabolical beast stared at my nearly naked body with an evil grin on his face.

"I wonder how well you'll taste, my pretty…" He purred in a low tone. I gulped in shock as he said this.

"Wh-What are you… gonna do to me…?" I stuttered in fear, not wanting to know what he was gonna do to me. He opened up his cavernous mouth and sticked out his dirty tongue, slowly bringing me up to it… I closed my eyes with a cringing frown, bracing for impact and expecting the worst to happen.

"Ewwww!" I wailed in disgust as Axel licked my body with his slimy tongue. The perverted beast then shoved my form into the cavern that was his damp, stinky, revolting mouth, his tongue and walls drenching me with his soggy saliva. "AXEL, STOP IT!" I squealed at the top of my lungs. He then started sucking on me as if I was his favourite lollipop, his dirty saliva continuing to slobber all over my skin. The insides of his mouth smelled so nasty that I wasn't even sure how much more of this I could take. Eventually, he stopped sucking me like a sweet and pulled me out of his caverns, every part of me coated in his gross drool. And I mean EVERY part! My hair, my face, my torso, my arms, my legs, and even my feet!

"Mmmm… Who would've known that these action figures of us taste so scrumptious!" Axel exclaimed in satisfaction.

I kept breathing as fast as I could to regain all the air I lost from being stuck in the brute's disgusting mouth. I looked down at his sandals to see that he took his left one off by merely slipping out his foot of it. He picked it up while refusing to let go of me, placed the sandal a good distance below me, dropped me onto it, just about smashing more of the bones I had left in my body (at least that's what it felt like), and placed the sandal back on the floor.

His left bare foot lifted above the sandal and gradually came down, slipping back into the footwear and crushing my poor, tortured body with his putrid, sweaty big canal boat. I screamed out in pain as his heavy man-hoof continued to put more pressure on me. Dear God, I just wanted him to stop tormenting me like this! Hasn't he already put me through enough misery already?! " **HELP ME!** " I screamed into his moist clodhoppers, really hoping that someone would come to my aid!

* * *

" **AXEL!** " I heard a feminine voice call out the foul man's name and he finally took his gross foot off my weakened, feeble carcass. I groaned in defeated discomfort as the colossal brute's abuse stopped for good.

" **WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!** " I heard Olivia shout at Axel, the black female violently shaking his shoulders back and forth.

"Olivia, I can explain!" My sick torturer tried to clear up. "I just found the Petra action figure I lost this morning and…"

" **WE NEED TO TALK, BIG MAN!** " Olivia screamed out loud, dragging Axel out of my room and closing the door behind them both. When both of them were gone, I slowly started to make my moves…

"Good lord, what did I do to deserve this shit…" I moaned, weakly getting back up on my feet, jumping off Axel's missing sandal, and putting all of my missing clothes back on my wet, soaked body. "Ewww…" I groaned, just realising how sticky and revolting his saliva really was.

I groggily walked back into my small, ruined house, some of the salvaged chests and furnaces from the kitchen shattered all over the living room, and the bed on the second floor was so close to falling down the staircase. With the last ounces of the strength Axel had spared me, I pushed the bed back to where it was, placed the red blanket back on the bed, and tried my best to go back to sleep. But thanks to the endless torture Axel just put me through, I didn't have much luck…

"I feel like I've just been violated…" I whimpered.


	8. Some Breakfast From My Giant Boyfriend

**_Chapter 8: A Bath and Some Breakfast From My Giant Boyfriend_**

* * *

 _"Petra? Petra? WAKE UP, PETRA!"_

I opened my eyes and said 'goodbye' to the black realms of my sleep as my blurred vision started to clear up and focus on the fifty-foot Jesse who was peering through the roof-less hole of my house, his rich green eyes directing their attention on me.

"Jesse…?" I mumbled at my giant boyfriend, still trying to gather the energy to get out of bed.

"What happened here last night?!" He exclaimed, his eyeballs scanning across my room and his nose taking a quick sniff of my drenched and humid body. "How did you manage to get such a rancid smell in one night?!" He asked, cringing and placing his fingers on his nose.

"Jesse please, I can explain-" I uttered as he placed one of his other fingers on my torso, moved it down to my shorts and put it back up to his vision, squeezing the small sample of Axel's saliva in his hand, his tongue sticking out in disgust.

"And how did you get so slimy?" He kept interrogating me with so many questions I wouldn't kept up. "What happened to the roof? Whose sandal is this?"

"Just slow down for a second, Jesse!" I shouted, which seemed to make him stop asking me more and more questions completely. "Axel… He broke into my room, tore the house roof off, moved the damn thing all over the place, and put me in his gross, rotten, disgusting mouth for god knows how long…"

"Jesus…" Jesse gasped in distress. "Just what is wrong with that guy?! First, he tries to take off your clothes in the day because he's that perverted about what possibilities his action figures will allow, and now… He actually shoves you into his mouth?! God, that's absolutely disgusting!" He grimaced in disgust as he concluded his sentence.

"He tried to crush the life out of me by sandwiching me in-between his dirty sandal and revolting foot too!" I exclaimed, bringing up the one thing I forgot to tell Jesse about earlier. "Luckily, Olivia came to my aid and dragged him out of the room before I could die from his feet's bad odour, so at least I'm still in one piece!"

"Does Olivia know that you're this tiny?" The brunette inquired.

"No, but Radar does." I casually stated. "Oops!" I placed my hand over my mouth as I accidentally let the cat out of the bag.

" **RADAR?!** " Jesse shouted the intern's name out loud as his face went pale. "Petra, how did Radar find out?!"

I felt a waterfall of sweat drip down my head as he asked me this question.

"Yesterday, when you took Axel out into Beacontown and saved my… innocence…" I started. "Radar walked into the hallway not too long after that and he found me standing on the red carpet. After the cutie gave me a cookie for my breakfast, I gladly confirmed that my secret was safe with him too."

"I'm... not sure if that's a good idea, Petra…" Jesse pondered, frowning at me. "Radar hasn't really been able to keep some of my secrets in the past…"

"The keywords being ' _in the past_ '." I pointed out for him. "Besides, Radar wasn't as confident as your assistant back then than he is now. Give him a chance."

The titanic brunette sighed at me. "Alright." He said. "But how did Axel break into your room anyway?!" His face went pale again as soon as he asked me this. "Oh no… I didn't forget to lock the door, did I?!" He asked hysterically, walking away from my small house.

" **Forget to lock the door?!** " I yelled out in anger at the forgettable dork. "You let me Axel slobber and tread all over me last night because you forgot to lock the door?!"

"Hey, I simply forgot!" The brunette tried to defend himself, walking back to me. He sighed in frustration before continuing to speak. "Although I will need to have a word with Axel later in the day… Come on, let's get you cleaned up." He said as he plucked me out of my bedroom and placed me safely onto on the quartz floor. He also placed a colossal water bucket not too far from where I was, the sounds of slow, loud splashing indicating that it was almost full. I took off my soggy clothes, and after my 'features' were fully exposed, my fifty-foot friend rolled up his sleeves, picked me up and slowly placed me into the water bucket.

* * *

The water felt really nice and warm, and it was such a privilege to finally get all of Axel's gross drool off my skin. As my pleasant bath continued, Jesse cleansed every part of me with a sponge and occasionally found me ways to make me burst out in laughter like tickling my belly button and feet.

After five minutes of being washed and scrubbed left, right and centre, Jesse took me out of the bucket, wrapped me around a miniature towel that was perfect for the my current size, and laid me on the floor.

"Thank you, Jesse." I said with a blush, proceeding to clean my body with the towel. The fact that Jesse was able to undo the mental damage that Axel had done to my body last night was enough to make me feel relived again.

"Wait here." My giant friend suggested, walking out of my room and coming back in with what looked like some new clothes fifteen seconds later. "You're free to put these on when you think you're dry." He smiled.

"Will do." I acknowledged with a delighted beam. I got the last of the water droplets with my towel, dropped the absorbent fabric on the ground, and put my brand new clothes on.

* * *

When I finally put my recent, fresh new set of clothing on, I examined my reflection in one of the glass windows of my little house. Of course I still donned my signature blue bandana, black fingerless glove, sleeve, shorts and combat boots… But now I was back to wearing my good old navy blue shirt and black pirate vest. I looked just like how I did before the whole Wither Storm incident occurred seven years ago.

"I made a replica of your old outfit for you in case something inconvenient happened to your other clothes." The giant man in red suspenders said, crouching down to nuzzle my bandana with his soft finger.

"Aww, Jesse… You're too kind…" I cooed, climbing up his blue denims and white shirt to hug his colossal cheek. The cute brunette blushed as I embraced his chop.

"You know I'd do anything for you, Petra…" My lover boy replied in the cutest tone imaginable, planting me back on the floor so I didn't have to climb back down his clothing. "You think you can wait here a few more seconds?" He asked me.

"Sure." I responded. "Take all the time you need, you adorable skyscraper of a man, you."

"Good. Wait right here." He informed me, pointing to where I was standing. He then left my room again, and in triple the time he was gone last time, he came back with a gargantuan plate of bread and baked potatoes in his hands. He lodged the plate onto the ground for me to take a gander at the mouth-watering meals.

"Wow… Thank you, Jesse!" I blessed the giant chap.

"Eat up, little girl!" He encouraged me, poking a bit of fun at my size.

I jumped onto the plate and took serval bites out of the baked potatoes. Their warm taste was exquisite, elegant and perfect.

I then proceeded to eat small bits of the bread. The feeling of having the minuscule pieces of bread touch my taste buds eliminated all the sensations of starvation that was in my body.

Even then, I still couldn't get over how freaking massive the bread and potatoes were! How was Jesse expecting for me to finish all this?

"Uh… Jesse?" I asked the whopper of a brunette who had his feet planted three centimetres away from me.

"Yes, Petra?" He questioned, wanting to know what I was going to ask him.

"These potatoes and bread are ginormous compared to me, and I've only managed to eat a few pieces of them." I babbled. "I know this may not sound like rocket science to you, but smaller size equals a smaller stomach." I informed him, patting my full belly to give him the hint if he hadn't figured it out already. "Do I have to finish all of that?"

"No you don't, my tiny warrior." He beamed at me. "Eat what you can."

"I'm glad you said that, because I'm full." I said, sitting down on the hard yet comfy quartz floor.

"Good to know I managed to feed you well." He laughed, rubbing my teeny nose with his big finger. I exploded in laughter from how much his nose tickling was making my sides convulse.

"You need to stop doing that!" I giggled, placing my hands on my chest to calm myself down.

He chuckled while situating his hand behind his head. "Sorry about that." He snickered. "But since you had a really rough night last night, what do you say we go out for a walk?" He inquired, placing his empty palm on the floor, just waiting for me to walk onto it. I sauntered myself onto the centre of his soft paw and he bought me up to his shirt pocket.

"Do you want to slide down into it this time?" He asked me out of curiosity.

"Sure." I answered with pride and a cute grin on my face.

"Okay, here we go." He announced, his hand slowly tilting down like a descending ramp. The angle of which his hand was at made me fall on my back and I started to slide down it.

"Weeeeeee!" I squealed with excitement as I glided down his paw and into his pocket like a water droplet. "That was fun, Jesse!" I called out to my giant boyfriend from inside his pocket.

"Let's go clear your mind and give you a good time." He declared, walking outside my room and down the corridor into the main hallway. Again, my visibility from within Jesse's pocket wasn't much, but it was certainly better than nothing at all.

* * *

Jesse stepped into the main hallway and we both saw that Axel, Olivia, Lukas and Radar were all there waiting for their mayor in red suspenders.

"What took you so long, Jesse?" Axel asked the brunette I was hiding in.

"Oh, I don't know…" Jesse pondered. "What was going through your head when you broke into Petra's room last night?!"

" _Damn!_ " I thought to myself. " _Leave it to Jesse to lay the smackdown on this sick child trapped in a buff man's body!_ "

" **NO, I DIDN'T!** " Axel tried to refute, only to get piled on by the angered responses of the other people in the room.

"You broke into Petra's room?!" Radar blurted out in shock, dropping his notepad and pen.

"I caught him playing rough with one of her action figures last night!" Olivia exclaimed, pointing at Axel. That's when everyone's eyes were fixated on the perverted brute.

"Axel, are you really that sick in the head?!" Lukas shouted at him, shaking him by the shoulders. "I used to think you were a pain in the ass when the Wither Storm was on loose, but now I have a lower opinion of you!" The blonde finished his sentence by turning his back on the big guy and crossing his arms together.

"I also caught him stripping down a Petra action figure that one of our fans gave to us!" Jesse joined in with the revolters.

"Guys, I'm sorry!" Axel ' _apologised_ ', his hands wide open in front of his mates. "I don't know what came over me when I did those things! Please, forgive me!"

"After finding out how much of a sick, perverted sadist you really are? I don't think so." Lukas doubted.

Ouch. As much as I hated Axel for the unspeakable methods of torture he inflicted on me yesterday, I thought that Lukas was taking his hatred for the brute way farther than he needed to. I mean, the big guy is still our friend after all…

Axel then started to burst into whimpering and tears, regretful sobs raising from his throat. Awww… Now I kinda felt bad for him…

"Axel, don't cry…" Olivia assured, wrapping her arms tightly around him. "We know you've pulled some really sick acts recently, but that doesn't mean you're not friends with us anymore…"

"Yeah, I know…" Axel cried. "But still… I don't want to lose you guys just because I can't control myself…" He buried his face into Olivia's shoulder and continued to cry.

"There there…" Olivia assured again, patting Axel's back with her hand. I then noticed that Jesse was starting to walk away from this heart-breaking result of an argument, and that was kind of a good thing for me, because I was actually starting to feel bad for the big guy.

"Wait, Jesse!" Lukas interrupted Jesse's stroll out of the hall. The emerald-eyed suspender boy turned to face the blonde who was still standing there with the heart-broken Axel. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, I'm leaving." My hulking companion casually answered the blonde's question.

"But what about Axel? And the houses you have to build for our new visitors?!" Lukas exclaimed in hysteria.

"Radar's got me covered!" Jesse replied at a fast pace, running out the door to Beacontown. The only indication I could make out that Radar wasn't so sure about doing his master's work for him was his nervous moans of paranoia.


	9. Same Scenery, New Perspective

**_Chapter 9: Same Scenery, New Perspective_**

* * *

To my surprise, Jesse managed to get me out of Beacontown without anyone detecting me at this size. I thought he would blow my cover immediately by waving "Hello!" to multiple citizens here and there, but they did was just wave back at him and never bother to examine the strange shape I was making in his shirt pocket. I think it was just luck more than anything though.

After my giant boyfriend was a good distance away from Beacontown, he placed his hand in the pocket I was hiding in and took me out to bring me up to... his forehead?

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as his hand slid me into his brow, my tiny form starting to slip off his grass field of hair. But before I could fall off at the last second, my gloved hand quickly grabbed onto the lowest strands of his hair, and I managed to climb up back onto his forehead, firmly planting my backside down on the middle and this time, refusing to let go of the brown locks that I was holding onto.

"Are you okay up there, Petra?" Jesse asked, afraid that I almost fell off his brow.

"Yeah Jesse, I'm okay!" I exclaimed, still holding on tight to his brown locks.

"I'm glad you're safe, my little girlfriend!" He beamed with his eyes focused on my small body still holding onto his hair. He gave a light chuckle as I tried to find a safe and comfortable spot on his noggin.

I sighed in relief as I found the perfect spot to sit down on Jesse's forehead. For the sake of safety, I still held onto his brown locks, refusing to let go of them. The enormous brunette commenced his walk forward, but I had no idea where he wanted to take me. I knew he wanted to take me for a walk to make up for the traumatising night Axel gave me, but still... It would be nice if Jesse told me where he planned on taking me.

"Hey Jesse... Where you are taking me?" I asked him, awaiting his answer.

"A few places you might remember from our past..." The giant male in red suspenders replied, progressing with his walk.

* * *

In the matter of 30 seconds, we came over to our first landmark: a big water puddle in the ground. I climbed down Jesse's forehead, face, shirt, denims and shoes to examine the puddle up close. Thanks to how small I was now, the puddle was like a never-ending lake to me.

"I remember when we first met by this puddle..." I found myself blabbering. "It's pretty crazy to believe that it's been like nine years since that happened... And that this same puddle is now like a vast, open lake to me..."

"And that it isn't too far away from Beacontown..." Jesse added for me.

I turned over to Jesse with a blush and smile on my face. "I know I've said a thousand times but... I've loved you from the moment we met each other at this very spot." I beamed at my mammoth-sized 'super close' friend.

"I know, Petra." He beamed back, picking me up in the palm of his hand. As Jesse brought me back up to his forehead, I started to recall what happened when we met each other for the first time.

 _It was a rainy night and Jesse was trying to seek shelter from all the monsters that were hot on his tail. During his attempt to escape from the creatures of the night, he tripped over the hole where that puddle was. He thought he was going to die that night, but luckily, I just managed to save his life from a zombie and we've been best friends ever since._

"I don't regret saving your skin one bit..." I said to myself, almost lost in the memory I was reliving from my past. And that's when I heard the sound of Jesse's fingers snapping, bringing me back to reality.

"Petra, are you still with me?" He asked, curious to know if my head wasn't still in the clouds.

"Yeah, I'm with you." I confirmed.

"Oh, good." He replied. "Do you want me to find us another spot?"

"Sure." I answered. "Go ahead. It is mostly **your** walk after all." I teased him a bit.

He laughed at my words, and within a few seconds, my beloved giant was off again.

* * *

After 20 minutes of staring at the pretty landscape while Jesse walked over to his next destination, we arrived at our next stop: the cave I used to live in.

"I remember this place!" I called out. "This is the cave I used to live in!"

"Surely it must've been dangerous trying to live a cautious and dependable live in there, Petra..." Jesse said, his emeralds for eyes staring up at my small body holding onto his chocolate hair.

I climbed down to the top of his nose, getting a grip on the brow between his two eyes.

"It was kinda hard for me..." I admitted. "But overall, it wasn't a bad place to live." As I said this, I started to have another flashback, this time on how I found the cave.

 _I was wandering around the endless plains of small grass, and in what felt like a chance of luck, I came across a vast, open cavern that was just waiting to be explored. Seeing as how I had a few torches and some food on me, I decided to venture into the deep darkness of the cave. It took me a while to clear the place of monsters and zombies, but after I accomplished that task, I gladly turned the subterranean area into my own personal house, complete with chests and a crafting table._

I bought _myself_ back to reality this time and continued having fun facts about the cave to Jesse. "It wasn't exactly 'roomy' in there, but overall, it played it's part in reliving me of stress whenever I had a rough day." I said with a smile.

The enormous brunette laughed in amusement at my trivia. "What do you say, Petra? One more landmark before we head home?" He asked me.

"Sure." I answered back at him. And just like before, once he placed me back on his forehead, we were off again.

* * *

The last landmark that we both arrived at was none other than Jesse's old treehouse. It was still very simple in appearance after all these years: a normal, wooden house placed in top on a random tree.

"Wow Jesse... I haven't seen this place in ages..." I found myself lost in thought the more I gazed at the nostalgic venue.

"I know right?" Jesse replied, withdrawn by his own hard work. "Whenever I get days off from being the mayor of Beacontown, it always feels like I'm taking a trip down memory lane every time I see this old treehouse again..."

I remembered the good times me and Jesse shared when he introduced to his residence which took him quite a lot of labour to make…

 _All of the Ocelots except for Lukas would just taunt Jesse and his friends about how their house was way better than the treehouse Jesse spent hours to build. I always told Aiden and his buddies to stop picking on them, which for the record, would always take way longer than I wanted it to. The exterior of the treehouse wasn't much, but the interior was actually very roomy if we wanted to have a bit of fun in there._

"Have you ever considering going back in there for the sake of revisiting the past?" I asked Jesse while closing my eyes and giving him a smile.

"I might do…" Jesse pondered. "But I don't really feel like it today. Maybe when the time comes, we'll actually go back in this old place for the sake of nostalgia." He ended his sentence with a cute grin. "Come on Petra, let's head home." He said, putting me back in his shirt pocket and beginning his walk back to Beacontown.

* * *

By the time we got back to Beacontown, we could that Radar was just standing there, his entire body shaking nervously, and his whole mind had gone into "hysteria mode".

"JESSE!" He screamed the brunette's name while clutching him by the shirt. "Today was the biggest disaster for me! How would you leave me to build houses for today's new citizens even though I have no idea how to build houses?!"

Lukas ran over to the brown intern's spot, standing alongside him. "Yeah Jesse, what were you thinking?!" Lukas asked, outraged at Jesse's audacity to leave Radar in change today. "Radar may be your personal assistant, but you can't expect the little guy to build houses for you! Axel didn't want to help because destruction was more of his thing, the only thing Olivia as far as building goes is mostly everything that has to do with redstone, and I didn't even know what our new citizens wanted their houses to look like!" The blonde spread his arms wide open as he finished this rant of fury.

"Look guys, I'm sorry…" Jesse assured them. "I just wasn't feeling up to playing my role of mayor today… But don't fret, I'll help you guys build the new houses tomorrow, how about that?"

"Okay, Jesse!" Radar exclaimed in relief and excitement, jumping up and down. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

Jesse laughed lightly at how excited his intern was. "Calm down, kid…" He said, rubbing his hand through Radar's black hair. "Tomorrow morning, okay?"

"I'll be prepared, master!" Radar squealed, happily thrilled at Jesse's details.

"Then that's settled!" Jesse announced. He started walking back to the Order Hall, looking over his shoulder at Radar and waving 'goodbye' to him for the day. "See you tomorrow, Radar!"

"You too, Jesse!" Radar replied, waving his hand back at the emerald-eyed brunette.

* * *

That night, Jesse watched me get ready for bed as usual. In addition to the new pair of clothes he gave me this morning, he also gave me a new pair of pyjamas that were a perfect fit for my midget-sized body. The top was a dark blue that was pretty similar to that of my shirt, and the trousers were black just like my shorts. Jesse making me a new set of clothes was one favour that I greatly appreciated, but making some pyjamas for me as well? _And_ designing them after my favourite colours no less? That was just the icing on the cake!

Not only that, but Jesse had also fixed the roof that Axel tore off for me! Now that's what I call care and affection!

"Do you want me to tuck you in tonight, my princess?" He asked me as I put on my new pyjamas.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'll pass on you tucking me in just this night." I answered while giving him a smile of appreciation.

"Alright Petra, good night." He said, nuzzling my forehead with his finger for what felt like the hundredth time in my lifetime as a 'shrinkee'.

"Good night, Jesse." I replied, yawning and waving my hand at him.

"I'll leave the door locked this time." Jesse assured, leaving me to get my sleep for the night and locking the ginormous door like he promised.

I walked into my house, up to my bedroom, plunked myself onto the bed, placed the blanket underneath my body, closed my eyes so there was nothing but black and called it a night.


	10. Tiny But Mighty

**_Chapter 10: Tiny But Mighty_**

* * *

 ** _A/N: YES, that title IS a reference to theninjakid14/jetrashipper's OC, Nikki. Also, I obviously do not own the lyrics to "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". :P_**

* * *

The following morning, I managed to peacefully wake myself up after getting about eight hours of sleep. I let out a yawn of satisfaction as I got out of bed and changed into my new pint-sized attire that resembled my old look from nine years ago. Dark blue shirt, black vest, black shorts, and all combined with my usual everyday items: my signature blue striped bandana, a fingerless glove, a black sleeve, and black combat boots.

As my mind went back to the walk that me and Jesse had yesterday, I wondered… "What would it be like for me to experience the outside world at this size… for myself?" As I nailed this thought at the front of my head, I dashed into the kitchen, grabbed my miniature version of Miss Butter from one of the chests, and burst out courageously to my monstrous bedroom, feeling like I was finally ready to go on an adventure after a long period of all fun and no risks of danger.

Hopefully, if no-one in Beacontown, or the Order Hall for that matter, was awake at this time, then I would be free to see just how much of an adventure exploring the world at the size of an ant would feel like.

I sheathed Miss Butter on my back, crouched down, and rolled underneath the small gap that was separating my colossal wooden door from being planted firmly on the ground. As I suspected from the quiet ambience of the corridor, all of my friends were still asleep, the sounds of their nearby snoring signifying that they were still stuck in Dreamland.

I started walking down the barren and empty corridor and into the main hallway, which also to my surprise, had no-one else besides me in it. Not even Axel was there, but he's told me countless times that he's an early bird himself.

The main hallway also felt quite empty on it's own when only the treasures that we collected during our past adventures were there to greet me. Nevertheless, I continued my trek out of the Order Hall and into the outskirts of Beacontown by rolling through another small gap that was separating the giant double doors from being planted securely on the ground.

* * *

I roamed around Beacontown's periphery, amazed to see that literally no citizens were awake at this time of day. The sun was even up and everything!

As I slowly took a stroll to the big door at the end of the outskirts, I decided to catch glances at our lovely citizens' houses, which were their gracious and friendly mayor Jesse massively approved of for putting so much effort and passion into them. The best part about these houses is that the builders didn't need Jesse's approval in the first place! They could've just built their masterpieces without saying a word to him and he still would've given them praise! That was the thing I loved most about Beacontown. Unlike Sky City, which was very restrictive with who was allowed to build what, anyone in Beacontown could build whatever they wanted without having to get permission from their mayor to begin construction.

When I finished reminiscing about what made Beacontown… Well… Beacontown, I finally made it to the gigantic red doors that were separating my teeny-tiny self from the outside world. Unlike the first two doors I passed, there was no small gap for me to roll under. There was however, a small hole in the wall beside the doors that I could fit through. And wouldn't you know it, it happened to lead straight to my desired destination. I always found it funny that considering how high quality this place is, everyone always manages to overlook these small holes shattered all over the town somehow. With no hesitation at all, I walked through the hole and ended up on the other side of the colossal wall.

* * *

"Wow…" I said to myself with awe as I gazed at the blue sky and endless plains, despite the fact that I was just as tall as the multiple blades of grass that partially obstructed my view.

"Now where I should venture off to?" I asked myself, placing my fingers on my chin to help me think about where I should go. _Champion City_ maybe? That seemed like a realistic answer… The place wasn't too far from Beacontown, and all I needed to get there was to stay on the stone road and get through the forest unscathed. Seemed simple enough, right?

I clambered my way out of the towering grass and positioned myself behind the giant red doors and in the middle of the rocky boulevard. After a short period of time, I commenced my walk forward to Champion City. Hopefully, I could only spend a few minutes there before Jesse would start worrying about me not being anywhere in the Order Hall.

As I moved away from Beacontown with my tall combat boots touching the heavy stone surface, I started singing some half pre-existing, half "partially altered to match my current situation" lyrics to myself.

"I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known. I know where it goes, and it's only me and I walk alone…"

I continued singing these words to myself as I also proceeded to drag my tiny body up the wooden bridge that was separating the stone road from the narrow forest.

"I walk this empty bridge, on the boulevard to Champion City…?"

I stopped singing to myself as I was starting to lose my touch with making up words to match the situation I was in. And it's a shame really, because improvisation was one of my strong points when it came to singing. At least I thought it was.

* * *

I brought myself back down the wooden bridge and into the small plains filled with trees. Even though the forest to Champion City wasn't very big, my new size and perspective made it look like the grass path seemed to stretch for miles and miles.

I dragged my big boots across the magnificent grass blades as I continued to keep myself on a straight path to ensure that I wouldn't lose my way to where I wanted to go. Refusing to make up words to replace certain ones that weren't relevant to my walk anymore, I started to sing to myself again…

"My shadow's the only one that walks beside me… My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating… Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me… Till then I walk alone…"

As I sang the harmonised ' _Ah_ 's, I soon heard something rustling in the grass, and that's when I froze in place, my feet firmly planted on the ground, and sweat of panic starting to drip down my forehead. I was literally petrified.

After seconds of hearing nothing but grass rustling, a gigantic, hulking wolf walked up to me and started to sniff my living carcass. " _Should I just play dead?_ " I thought to myself, my teeth shivering in fear. " _It doesn't seem like it wants to harm me, but even then, I do feel like I should kinda play it safe…_ "

The enormous wolf then revealed it's true nature as it's eyes turned blood red and started snarling at me, gnawing it's pointy teeth the more it stared at my terrified body.

"Hehehe… Nice doggy…" I cracked, slowly starting to walk away from the angry wolf by taking two small steps behind me, only for it to growl at me again. If that thing was planning on eating me for dinner, I had to get out of here as soon as possible.

"I'm sorry, doggy." I quietly said with a startled tone in my voice. "But I really can't stay for dinner…" I turned my back on the furious fur pile and made a run of it, only for the wolf start shooting after me!

This wild goose chase wasn't even remotely fair for me! The wolf like was 10 miles per hour faster than I could ever be! As I looked behind me while running as fast as I could, the bag of fur opened it's large, gaping mouth and tried to bite me! I jumped to my right to just barely avoid getting eaten by the crazed, rabid animal. I didn't need this oversized basket of fur chasing me! I didn't need another variation of the chase I had with Axel two days ago! All I wanted was to walk to Champion City in peace! Was that really too much to ask for?!

As I kept running for my life, I continued to avoid getting chomped by the mutt by jumping to my left and right. As Champion City finally came into my view and my feet started to get a feel for the newfound road of slabs, I was getting severely tired and I was starting to lose my breath, but I couldn't let this wolf chow down on me like I was it's fresh new bone!

As usual, I avoided getting eaten by the white mutt by jumping to my left and right. I switched up my repetitive pattern of 'left right left right' a bit to catch it off-guard, but it didn't seem to work because it was still hot on my tail, provided I actually had one to begin with!

" **Come on, please let there be a hole between the gates!** " I screamed out loud, just praying to god that I would be able to survive this encounter with a blood-thirsty wolf and live to tell the tale. And by some miracle, as if God was listening to my last desperate cries for help, there actually was a hole in the gates I could squeeze through!

" **YES!** " I squealed in relief, finally regaining my strength to outrun the mutt as fast as I could, and just in time before it could bite my face off!

I dived for the long, thin hole in-between the large iron gates and the stone floor, and I managed to slip through it and onto the other side before the ruthless wolf could graze me with it's razor-sharp claws!

Checking behind me one last time, the bag of fur kept trying to force it's paws under the hole, but the gap was too long for the wolf to even come close to dragging me back out the entrance. After a few seconds of trying to force it's paws through, but to no avail, the wolf gave a final frustrated growl and walked away from the big gates.

I gave a massive sigh of relief and felt like the biggest weights just got done lifting themselves off my shoulders as the mutt walked back to the forest where it belonged.

Wow… How was that for a morning?! I actually managed to outrun a rabid, bloodthirsty wolf all by myself! And while I was the size of a blade of grass, no less! I don't care if it was just pure luck or all stamina... To quote Jesse's long-lost sister, Nikki… I was truly on my way to becoming " **Tiny but mighty** ".


	11. Champion City of Giant Women and Llamas

**_Chapter 11: The Champion City of Giant Women and Llamas_**

* * *

I thoroughly scanned my chocolate brown eyeballs around the enormous and gargantuan metropolis that was… Champion City.

The large town was mostly a colour scheme of grey, white, orange and blue. It's buildings mainly consisted of tall skyscrapers and apartments. These buildings were already ginormous enough when I was simply two blocks tall, but of course, my newfound size of half a block made them appear way bigger than they actually were… It's like I was now staring up at a bunch of beanstalks that lead up to a giant's castle in the sky.

To be honest, I didn't hate Champion City for what it was, but rather for how strict the place was. Unlike Beacontown which allowed the pleasure of creative expression from potentially millions of people, Champion City was basically an overworld version of Sky City. The only difference between the two was that one was ruled by a dominant woman who relied on a chicken to keep everything in the balance, and the one I was standing in right now was ruled by an egoistical, bossy-boots blonde with a microphone that she always wears on her right ear day and night for whatever reason.

I started trekking around the magnificent statue of Lluna the Llama and dodged the big feet of many massive unaware citizens while I was at it. Many of these inhabitants were walking over to their approved building spots, the ones that only Stella demanded they should build in. Did I mention this joint was ruled by a bossy-boots blonde?

But soon after all the citizens in my view started building, I started hearing cataclysmic earthquakes that were only getting louder and more violent every second I was standing there doing nothing. I knew these tremors weren't being made by any of the citizens since they were all standing there and simply placing their blocks wherever they desired… So who was making them?

Well, it seemed like I was going to get my answer right now since the earthquakes had gotten as loud as they could get…

The violent tremors stopped, and to my unexpected surprise, I was greeted by a huge, hulking, monstrous llama… Was that Lluna?

The curious llama with fur as white as snow stared at my shrunken body with a look of fascination and took a sniff of me. Even though I looked all too familiar to her, I certainly seemed like a strange and foreign creature to her.

"Lluna, my darling? What did you find this time?" I heard a whiny feminine voice ask the interested llama. The voice's owner then came over beside where Lluna was, and I almost grimaced when I saw who came into my sight alongside Lluna. It was Stella. The disrespectful and impolite woman had bleached hair, biracial skin, black eyebrows, eyes that were a mix of blue and green, and her attire for the day was a combination of black shoes, her trademark microphone, and her signature long purple dress.

"Hi, Stella…" I greeted the hulking bossy-boots as I sighed and stared down at my feet with distaste.

"Ooh, Petra!" Stella cooed, crouching down on her right knee to take a closer look at me. "Why are you looking so… small today?" Having put so much emphasis on the word "small", she laughed as put her sentence to an end.

"I know you and Lluna are probably gonna think I've lost my mind, but during a party me and my friends had half a week ago at Beacontown, I accidentally drank a lot of Ivor's shrinking potions, and when I woke up the day after that big party… Well, here I am now." I stated, waving my hands wide open when I gave the giant duo their answer.

There was a short period of silence between the blonde girl and her llama. They both took their focus off my small body and looked over at each other. Stella burst out in laughter, proving that she really was that ignorant to even believe that Ivor had made every type of potion imaginable. Me and Lluna gave Stella big frowns of anger as the giant leader tried to contain herself.

"Oh man…" Stella laughed, placing her arms on Lluna's back. "That is too good! Everyone knows there's no such thing as shrinking potions! Come on Petra, you're gonna have to try harder than that if you want me to believe you!"

"What are you laughing at this time, Stella?" A nearby gardener asked the leader, halting his construction on this city's new and improved wheat farm.

"None of your business!" Stella yelled at the gardener, ferociously pointing her index finger at him. "Get back to work!"

The gardener scowled in frustration as he was forced to continue with his job. All he wanted was a harmless answer, nothing else. Was that really too much to ask? It's no wonder why I rarely visit this place.

"Stella please, I promise I'm telling the truth!" I yelled at her, wanting the cruel lady to at least put a bit of her belief in my story.

"Nope… I still think you're crazy…" Stella muttered, lifting one of her arms off Lluna's back and playing with her fingers. "Besides…" The colossal giantess lifted her right leg up, and as soon as she placed the body part as high as it could go, she quickly planted it back on the quartz road we were standing on, creating a massive earthquake effect and nearly stomping on my body.

"Aaah!" I let out a cry of shock as the naughty woman nearly crushed me with her giant black shoe and made me fall back first onto the floor.

"I don't think you'll survive as long as you think you can like this…" Stella finished her sentence as she moved her large face towards me, eliminating all of my personal space, and giving my frightened form a devious smirk. She broke apart rather shortly, gladly giving back all of my personal space at least. But that pleasure was short lived when the ginormous empress tried to stomp on my face next. I rolled out of the way of Stella's gargantuan shoe, but it turns out she blatantly missed by the closest centimetre possible just to tease me.

She brought her shoe back up and went for my legs this time, making me do the splits in retaliation when she stomped in-between them. Stella was laughing in amusement at my reactions to nearly getting crushed underneath her feet, even though she was just messing with me. But Lluna was not approving of her owner's actions one bit, giving Stella a grunt of hatred and a "You better stop this now" look.

"Oh, shut up!" Stella shouted, slapping Lluna across her head and making the poor llama cry out in pain. Geez… Stella does not seem to be fond of animals at all… Every time she does something like that, it really is no wonder why Lluna wants to run away from Champion City.

"Anyway Petra, how's my rival doing?" Stella asked me, curious about how Jesse was getting on at Beacontown. I stood back up and gave my word on the matter.

"He's been… wanting to disassociate himself from you as much as possible. He doesn't think of you as his rival one bit. He also thinks that your place would get on just as well as his if you allowed everyone to build whatever they want, whenever they want, without having to ask for your permission first."

Lluna thought I had good points in my statement and nodded at me with a smile. Stella, unsurprisingly, had the opposite opinion of what her pet thought.

"What is your boyfriend thinking, Petra?!" Stella laughed at what her "rival" thought of her and the empire she worked hard to maintain. The nasty ruler retaliated by spewing unintelligent responses out of her mouth.

"If I were to give everyone in Champion City the freedom to build whatever they wanted with no schedule, the very appeal of this place would fall apart!" Stella gave her word on the matter. As usual, she never failed to confound me with her broken logic.

"Stella, can't you just take some ideas from Jesse for once?" I suggested with desperation in my voice. "Sure, you might get accused of plagiarising your rival's town a bit, but trust me, it'll certainly be beneficial in the long run."

"I don't need to leech off your boyfriend's success." Stella replied with a snarky tone. "I want to walk down my own path." She claimed while crossing her arms together.

"Alright…" I sighed. "But don't say me and Jesse didn't warn you."

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." Stella blabbered on, not paying attention to anything that came out of my mouth just now.

"Well…" I begun while stretching my arms and turning my back. "I better be on my way back to your rival's hometown now. Goodbye." I began to walk away from the blonde giantess and her pet llama, only to have Stella stomp her foot down in front of me, interrupting my walk back to the iron gates.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, jumping out of the way of Stella's foot and falling on my backside yet again.

"Not so fast, Petra!" Stella tutted, wagging her index finger in front of my face. "I have a job for you!"

"What is it this time?" I groaned, completely uninterested in what Stella wanted me to do now.

"Just climb onto Lluna first and you'll see…" Stella said, pointing her open hand at the white scarfed llama herself.

I proceeded to climb up Lluna's fluffy white fur and onto her back. I mounted myself onto her neck and held onto to it like a cowgirl ready to ride off into the horizon with her favourite horse.

Lluna was going to start walking independently, but she let out a scream of unspeakable pain and started running off instead when Stella literally kicked her in the ass. I nearly fell of Lluna when she started running at the speed of light, so I made a mental note in my brain to hold onto her neck as hard as I could. Exactly how this poor, innocent llama ended up with such a mean, disrespectful, ugly brat for an owner is way beyond me honestly…

* * *

Lluna took me across the courtyard and into the treasure hall with Stella walking close behind us.

To be honest, I just saw this foyer as nothing but a sad, pathetic excuse for Stella to shove her pointless treasures in everyone's faces.

When Lluna and Stella stopped walking, I heard Stella say "You have reached your destination, Petra!" Despite how excited her delivery of that sentence was, I still thought she sounded like a sat-nav when she said it.

I dismounted off of Lluna's back and landed safely on the floor, eyeing Stella's face when I docked my two feet on the ground.

"Okay… What do I need to do before I can leave?" I asked the towering ruler of this city.

"Your job is to…" Stella begun, leaving me in suspense the longer she said nothing.

"Well?" I inquired, just wanting her to give me my damned answer at this point.

"Clean up Lluna!" Stella finally spat out, placing one of her hands on the llama's white fur and taking off her purple and blue striped scarf.

"WHAT?!" I screamed out in bewilderment. "Why can't you clean Lluna yourself? She's your pet!"

"I don't want to." Stella frowned. "Besides, it was Lluna's fault for rolling around in the grass this morning!" She threw a gigantic water bucket and sponge next to me as she said this.

"If you expect me to clean your llama for you, you can think again!" I yelled at the naive and rude owner of the miserable llama. Stella walked behind me as I said this. Lluna's shocked expression was a sign that Stella was not going to do something nice to me. The giant leader slowly lifted up her foot and placed it so that the shadow was underneath me, and she was just leaving it dangling there in mid-air…

"Are you sure you don't want to change your mind?" Stella asked me with an evil sneer, her giant foot still suspended in the air. "Because if you don't, I'm gonna reduce you to nothing but a red puddle underneath my shoe, and I'll never wash it again…"

"Okay okay I'll clean Lluna for you just don't squash me please!" I screamed as fast as I could, diverting my attention from Stella's drooping shoe.

"Good." Stella simply beamed, slowly placing her foot back down alongside the one that was already on the floor, and leaving me to do the business she just assigned for me in peace. "You're free to call me if you need any assistance."

I placed the enormous sponge in my tiny hands, the massive weight of the absorbent rectangle making me take unintended steps and spins in every possible direction. "Okay Lluna…" I murmured to the curious, hulking llama. "I promise that this won't hurt at all, girl." I smiled.

* * *

It took me roughly three and a half hours to clean every last bit of Lluna's body. Stella was at least kind enough to "borrow" a few step-ladders so I could clean the llama's more "hard to reach" areas, but even without her assistance, it would've still felt like I was stuck washing the abusive girl's oversized pet forever.

Dropping the heavy sponge on the floor, my arms not being able to take anymore, I plopped both of my knees on the ground and asked Stella "Okay Stella, I've washed every last bit of Lluna's body for you. Can I please leave now?"

The giant punk of a rude woman smirked down at me and placed her clenched fist on her chin. "Yes you can, Petra." She told me. "You're free to go." She waved her arm at the door that would lead out to the courtyard.

"Oh. And, uh… Can I ride back to Beacontown on Lluna?" I considered. "I know I just cleaned her, but I don't wanna risk nearly becoming a hungry wolf's dinner again…" I passionately stroked both of my hands on Lluna's soft fur as I pondered about this decision.

Stella looked at me as if her apart was just torn apart, but then she finally maintained a casual and friendly look on her face. "Okay… But just don't get her dirty again." The hulking giantess answered my question, winking at me.

"Thank you, Stella." I blessed her, climbing up Lluna's legs and mounting myself on her neck, ready to ride out of Champion City. "Giddyup, Lluna! To Beacontown!" I hollered, with my big, trusty steed running out of the treasure hall and away from Stella, much to her long-awaited joy and comfort.


	12. A Picnic With a Cat-Boy and His Girl

**_Chapter 12: A Picnic With a Cat-Boy and His Girl_**

* * *

As I expected, no danger came along my path as I rode back to Beacontown on Lluna, who seemed more than happy to get out of Champion City and Stella's hair for today.

When the llama stopped in front of the red gates that I was all too familiar with, I jumped off her comfy, furry back and onto the ground. "Goodbye, Lluna!" I waved to the llama with a big smile on my face.

Lluna did likewise and started walking back to Champion City. At least, that was what she wanted Stella to believe. Instead, she tried to reconvene with her kind in the forest as I suggested on my way back.

As Lluna walked off, I walked underneath the small hole beside the red gates which, to my surprise, hadn't been patched up since I left Beacontown unnoticed. I figured that during all that time I wasted cleaning up Lluna for Stella, someone would've covered the hole up... But no, that hole seems to have been completely ignored by those who could've wished to fix it.

* * *

I anticipated that Beacontown would be alive and buzzing by the time I got back from Champion City, and as it turned out, I was right. Every citizen I knew there was casually walking around, continuing their builds, chatting to one another, enjoying their day, the usual everyday stuff.

As much as this lovely sight put a big grin on my face, I couldn't let myself get distracted watching all these beautiful people enjoying themselves. Exploring the world outside Beacontown was fun and all, but I bet Jesse was most likely worrying about me, wondering where I am right now...

With no hesitation, I made a run for the Order Hall, but since I couldn't be bothered to check my surroundings, an enormous, heavy white sneaker fell onto my body. The tremendous amount of pressure the shoe was putting onto my poor, helpless form made me feel like I was getting crushed to death.

"Aaah! Someone get this thing off me! I'm being trampled by a freaking monument-sized foot!" I screamed into the cold, hard ground.

As I kept screaming for help that would most likely never come, the shoe lifted itself off my crunched and injured body. "Owww..." I groaned in pain, slowly turning my back so I could see the person who just stepped on me.

The individual who trod on my small, defenceless self was wearing an orange hoodie, dark blue denims and white Vans, and the female companion alongside him was donning a white and blue striped long sleeve shirt, blue jeans, and brown leather boots. I let out another groan of pain as I brought more of my attention to the massive duo who looked concerned and frightened as they examined my damaged body.

"Oh no!" The giant boy exclaimed. "Are you okay, tiny person? I didn't see you there!" He picked me up with his hands and brought me up to his dark green eyes. "Are you okay?! Please tell me!" He shouted loud enough for everyone in Beacontown to hear. The citizens that eyed him thought he was nuts, but to be honest, I really couldn't blame them since they were unaware of the fact that I was so small.

"Stampy...?" I asked for the boy's name out of curiosity, still stricken with the busted tone in my voice.

"Wait... Is that..." The boy speculated, looking closely at my small being. "Petra?! What happened to you? I don't remember you being this tiny!"

"Stampy, relax!" The girl by his side assured him. "Your mind's probably playing tricks on you! There's no way Petra could've gotten this small in size!" She roughly measured my microscopic height with her fingers as she said this.

"Guys, it really is me! Petra!" I exclaimed at the pair, jumping up and down on Stampy's hands and waving my hands back and forth.

"Yes, but... how did you get so small?" Stampy asked me.

"You see..." I started, tugging at the top of my tunic with my fingers. "Half a week ago, me and my friends threw a party at the Order Hall... But Ivor sent a lot of shrinking potions to that party by accident, and I basically drank every last one of them, so the day after that, I woke up to find out that my entire body had shrunk down to the size of a silverfish!"

"Ivor did this?!" Stampy exclaimed, his eyes wide with shock. "I knew that guy would've had something to do with this!"

"Hey, it was an accident!" I blurted in partial anger.

"Is he doing anything to get you back to normal size?" Stacy inquired.

"He is working on an antidote..." I mentioned. "But I have no idea when he's going to get it finished. He mentioned that there's too many combinations of ingredients for him to try. So, unless somebody already had this problem in the past, I think I'm gonna be stuck like this be months."

"Oh no, you poor thing, Petra!" Stampy cried, stroking my cheek with his finger. "Is it going to be hard living like this for months?"

"Well, I have already gotten used to certain aspects of this new life, but since I don't want my friends to know about my downsizing, I don't know how long I'm gonna be able to keep this up..." I acknowledged. "I appreciate your concern by the way, Stampy."

"Awww, thank you, Petra..." The cat-boy smiled with a blush.

"Anyway, what were you going to do before Stampy stepped on you by accident?" Stacy asked me. The cat-boy broke into a small sweat as his female companion mentioned this.

"I was just going to go back to the Order Hall in case Jesse was worried about where I had gone." I gave my answer to the gentle giantess. "What about you?"

"Well, me and Stampy were just going to go out of Beacontown for a picnic." Stacy answered back. "Would you like to come with us?" She smiled as she offered this choice to me.

"Stacy, do you really think this is a good idea? What if we accidentally squash her?" Stampy whispered, putting me back down on the stone ground.

"Oh come on Stampy, she'll be fine." Stacy whispered back to her massive cat-obsessed friend.

As I was focusing on the couple's silent conversation, I heard the sound of a baby wolf barking, and that's then Stacy's pet puppy, Wink, came careening around a corner and stopped at my small form, happily panting at me with his tongue sticking out.

I gleefully laughed at the big puppy, waving at him. "Hi, Wink." I greeted the dog. The cute pup then started to lick my body, which made me howl in laughter as I convulsed and fell to the floor. "Please stop it!" I giggled as Wink continued to caress me with his long tongue.

"Okay Wink, that's enough. Give Tiny Petra her space." Stacy said, grabbing Wink with her arms placed under his belly and bringing him up to her torso. ' **Tiny Petra** ', eh? I like the sound of that... "Sorry about Wink, Petra. He's just curious. Are you coming with us to the picnic?"

"Well, I wish I could, but I really have to get back to the Order Hall." I confessed.

"Awww, come on Petra! Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?" Stampy begged me, trying to make his eyes as big as he could.

I sighed in defeat and told the giant cat-boy "Okay, I will", forcing a big smile on my face.

"Hooray!" Stampy exclaimed, clapping his hands in a rapid manner. "Let's go have something to eat, Stacy!" Not too soon after he said this, he accidentally trod on one of his untied shoelaces and fell onto the floor. He started crying as he brought himself back onto his knees.

"Oh Stampy, did it happen again?" Stacy asked, walking over to the sobbing boy who simply nodded at her. She grabbed his shoelaces in her hands as she tied a basic knot, made a loop with one of the laces, used her other hand to wrap the other lace around the loop, pulled the shoelace through the hole to form another loop, held onto both of the loops and pulled them tight. "You know, Stampy, someday you're gonna have to learn how tie your shoes yourself." Stacy said as she did the same thing with Stampy's other shoe.

"I know, Stacy..." Stampy sobbed. "It's just that... No matter how many methods you try to teach me, I just can't seem to do it myself..." Awww, good ol' Stampy. Even though he was a grown man at this point, he was still an innocent and inadequate child at heart. And that's what I liked the most about him.

"There, done!" Stacy declared as she got done tying Stampy's shoes and put an end to his crying. "Come on guys, this picnic isn't gonna eat itself!" The hulking girl quipped as she picked up all of the picnic supplies.

"Can I carry Petra in my pocket, Stacy? Please?" Stampy inquired, holding me in the palms of his hands.

"Sure, Stampy. Go ahead." Stacy laughed. "Think of her as your own personal toy for the day."

"Thank you, Stacy! You're so kind!" Stampy complimented Stacy as he placed me in the large, spacious pocket of his orange cat hoodie. The cat adorer and his friend certainly didn't plan on procrastinating since they started to walk away from their houses and out of Beacontown, into the endless plains of grass.

* * *

After a walk that lasted for two minutes, Stampy took me right out of his pocket and watched with me as Stacy laid the red and white checkered blanket onto the grass. Stampy then planted me on the long, protracted rug as Stacy laid all of their food on the picnic blanket. Cake, pumpkin pie, apples, bread and melons, all of which were the size of skyscrapers compared to me.

Stampy and Stacy both decided to sit down alongside each other to dig into their picnic lunch. As my milk chocolate eyes mainly focused on Stampy, I noticed that on the bottom of one of his white Vans was a pink puddle-shaped surface that seemed to be stuck to his sole.

"Uhh, Stampy? What's that on your shoe?" I inquired, pointing at the strange pink object stuck on his footwear. The hulking behemoth of a child trapped in an adult's body stopped moving his hands towards the plastic wrap surrounding the jumbo-sized cake as I asked him this.

"What are you pointing at?" He blurted out of curiosity, bringing the bottom of his sneaker up to his vision. "Huh? Did I step in something?" Stacy peeked over to take a look at the sole of his shoe too, and she pulled a face of frustration and disgust as she saw exactly what was stuck on Stampy's sneaker.

"Bubble gum..." Stacy groaned in distaste. "I swear this world would be better off if it didn't have so many litter bugs... Do you want me to take it off for you, Stampy? It certainly won't come off with ease the next day."

"No thank you, Stacy! I'll be independent for once and remove it on my own!" Stampy declared with forced pride in his cheerful voice.

"Okay... just get it off when you get the chance." Stacy demanded. "You don't want anyone else noticing that when we get back to Beacontown. It'll make us unclean and lazy." I have to say, it was pretty amusing to see Stacy come off as a mother figure to Stampy's inner child.

* * *

Not too long after Stacy let Stampy off with a warning, the inquisitive giantess and cheery goliath started to dine on their pumpkin pie and cake respectively.

Stampy still hadn't taken the gum off his shoe yet because he was busy devouring the cake that he was enjoying all too much. By the time he finished eating half of the delectable snack, his mouth area and hands were already covered in crumbs and white icing. Stacy laughed as she wiped the mess off of Stampy's mouth with a tissue while the giant boy licked his hands free of crumbs.

"Can I dig into anything here?" I asked the two out of curiosity.

"Sure, Petra! Help yourself!" Stacy informed me, waving her arm over everything I was allowed to try.

"Just save the rest of the cake for me!" Stampy laughed in a playful manner.

I took multiple bites out of the tremendous melons and apples, chewing them slowly but surely for my taste buds to savour the sweet aroma of the delightful meals. I made several "mmmm" sounds to signify that I was enjoying the satisfying taste of the monster-sized food.

After I felt my stomach reach it's finish line, I laid down on the perpetual blanket as I rubbed my tummy in gratification. "Thank you, guys." I complimented the appealing duo. "It seems that you certainly know how to fill me up."

"You're welcome, Petra." Stacy accepted my feedback with ease. By the time I was full, Stampy had finished his cake, his mouth and hands covered in crumbs and icing again, and Stacy had finished all of her bread and pumpkin pies while sharing a few bits of them to Wink. I gazed back at the colossal melons and apples I left unfinished because they were too big and I was too small, and I asked the threesome "Are any of you willing to finish these for me? I'm stuffed so I don't mind..."

"I'll happily finish those for you, Petra!" Stampy exclaimed in a helpful tone. He dug into the melons and apples which had a fair few of my tiny bite marks on them. I thought that he wouldn't want anything to do to them since I chowed down on a few chunks of them first, but again, knowing Stampy's inner child, he just dived straight into eating them without even minding the fact that I tried to down them first.

"Thank you, Stampy." I praised the adorable cat admirer.

"Awww, you're welcome, Petra." Stampy replied, swallowing the last chunk of food that was in his mouth.

"Come on guys, let's head back to Beacontown before it gets dark." Stacy announced, rolling the picnic blanket up and causing me to jump into the grass. I started my walk back to Beacontown in front of the humongous combo, Stampy and Stacy. But as I was walking behind them, I noticed that the sun was being blocked by something, as indicated by the huge shadow that drifted underneath me. I turned a full 180 degrees and looked up at the heavens to catch a glance at the large, strange object that was obstructing the big ball of light in the sky. It was Stampy's gargantuan white shoe, and the way he positioned his leg at the highest peak he could really made it seem like he was actually going to trample me again!

" ** _STAMPY, WAIT!_** " But Stampy didn't seem to hear me, and his tennis racket-soled sneaker fell on me with a thunderous **_BOOM!_** that shook the ground.

His shoe rose up shortly afterwards, as the grown man-kid stepped off the endless plains of grass, but I was actually levitating off it too! What was happening?! But after examining the situation I was, I saw that I was stuck on Stampy's mammoth-sized sneaker, cemented to the big piece of bubble gum that he still hadn't taken off his sole! I screamed out in fear as his shoe ascended and descended in a huge, churning roller coaster-like motion.

 ** _THUD!_**

The shoe I was stuck on fell to the grass again, and I felt myself get squished deeper into the bubble gum...

"Stampy, did you hear anything?" I faintly heard Stacy's voice, who seemed curious about what she heard.

"No, I didn't..." I heard Stampy say as his sneaker started to move up again, causing me to scream at the top of the lungs yet again.

" ** _Someone get me off this thing!_** " I screeched like a banshee.

 ** _BOOM!_**

The shoe fell on the ground and I got squished deeper into the bubble gum!

"I swear I could've heard Petra screaming..." I heard Stacy ponder. "Is she still with us? Is she in danger?"

"I don't know actually... Where is she?" Stampy responded to Stacy's questions as his solid clodhopper lifted up into the air again, which prompted me to shriek as loud as I could.

 ** _BANG!_**

I felt myself get squished into the bubble gum even deeper as Stampy's shoe hit the ground again for what felt like the hundredth time!

"Wait..." I heard Stampy speculate. "I think there's something on my shoe..." And that's when the unaware colossus lifted his sneaker off the ground and brought the sole up to his eyesight as he balanced on one leg.

"Petra?!" Stampy exclaimed in shock when he saw me stuck on the bottom of his sneaker. "What are you doing on my shoe?!"

"Just get me off of this thing for crying out loud..." I groaned, feeling like my body was ready to give up from the immense amount of agony Stampy inflicted on me by accident.

"Stampy, I thought you were going to take that gum off your shoe!" Stacy yelled in frustration at the colossal cat-boy.

"I was!" Stampy asserted, gradually becoming shaky and jumpy. "I guess I just... forgot all about it as I was eating my cake..."

"Come here..." Stacy requested, grabbing the shoe that I was stuck on with one of her hands and prying the gum off with a stick in her other hand. The pleasant giantess then pried _me_ off the sticky substance at last with her fingers, the pleasure of being able to move my body around however I wanted finally coming back to me.

"Thank you, Stacy..." I panted as she laid out her hand. "I thought I was gonna be stuck underneath Stampy's foot forever..." I pointed my thumb towards Stampy himself as I said this. "I don't think the kid's ready to become independent just yet..."

"My pleasure, Petra." Stacy assured me, stroking my face with her huge fingers. "And yeah, I think Stampy might have to wait before he can handle things on his own too..."

"I'm sorry, Petra..." Stampy whined at me with sympathy. "I completely forgot that you were still here with us... Again, I'm really, _really_ sorry if I hurt you too much..."

"It's okay, Stampy. I forgive you." I reassured the young child trapped in a grown man's body, placing my tiny hand on his ginormous face. "Come on guys! To Beacontown!"


	13. I'm Sorry I Worried You This Much

**_Chapter 13: I'm Sorry I Worried You This Much_**

* * *

As the sun set and the sky slowly became black with the environment going dark in front of me, Stampy and Stacy took me back to the Order Hall in Beacontown.

"Thank you, guys!" I waved at the giant couple as Stampy laid me down in front of the closed door. "That was pretty fun!"

"I'm so glad you could take the time out of your tiny hands to go out with us, Petra!" Stampy beamed, crouching down at me with his eyes closed and proudly showing off his clean, sparkly teeth. "Are you going to hang out with us again when you get back to normal?"

"You never know, I might actually do that when I'm back to my old self again..." I considered, placing my fingers on the bottom of my lips. "The crazy amounts of peril I got myself into today is a dead giveaway that it's a dangerous world out there for someone as small as me... And getting stuck on Stampy's shoe is probably the most pain I've ever felt in my life..."

"It was just an accident!" Stampy exclaimed.

"I know you didn't mean it, Stampy." I acknowledged. "But still, it was really terrifying and painful for me, and I live for danger... Maybe if I manage to get myself back to normal size, I'll invite you guys to our next party, alright?"

"Sounds like a deal!" Stampy proudly announced in a cheerful tone. "Can I bring cake to the party?"

"Sure." I answered the energetic boy's question, laughing lightly at his obvious obsession with cake. "See you later, Stampy and Stacy!" I waved at the two monster-sized friends as I bid 'goodbye' to them.

"Good night, Petra!" The duo called out as they waved back at me and started running back to their houses before monsters could start spawning.

* * *

I heard a really loud creaking noise as the colossal door behind me slowly opened up to reveal Jesse pushing it open. The gigantic brunette in his signature white shirt and red suspenders stared down at the floor to see that I was just standing there, waving at my enormous boyfriend with a nervous giggle as I stood in front of his hulking feet.

"PETRA!" Jesse exclaimed, picking me up with both of his hands. "Where have you been?! I couldn't find you anywhere in Beacontown! I kept asking everyone I ran into if they saw a tiny redhead in their homes, but they all thought I was being crazy! Lukas, Radar, Axel and Olivia, they've all been asking me where the hell you've gone! Do you have any idea how hysterical you've made me today?! What if you got yourself killed?! I wouldn't know what to do then!" The big man yelled out in pure anger, obviously showing off his large, undying amount of concern for me, which I honestly couldn't blame him for since we both loved each other all too much.

"Slow down, Jesse!" I asserted, which caused my best friend to stop talking so I could respond to the endless tirade of questions he bombarded me with in the matter of fifteen seconds. Jesse stood still with his mouth partially open and tears of sweat starting to drip down his forehead as I mustered the courage to give my word on everything he just asked me.

"First off..." I started, sighing constantly in-between sentences to calm myself down. "I just wanted to explore the world outside Beacontown myself to see how exciting it would be from this size. Since you were all asleep at the time I woke up, I figured there would be no harm in exploring a vast, open landscape, especially since I'm just about as tall as a blade of grass now... Unfortunately for me, several things either took a turn for the worst or slowed down my journey back to Beacontown."

"I can't wait to hear this, Petra..." The brunette muttered at me sarcastically.

"On my way to Champion City, I ran into a wolf..." I started.

"For what reason did you decide to go to Champion City?!" Jesse asked me in a frustrated manner.

"Hey, I was just curious!" I quickly exclaimed. "Anyway, as I was saying, I ran into a wolf on my way to Champion City. I thought it would mean no harm since all it did was sniff me, but after that, I found myself caught in a wild goose chase with the bloodthirsty mutt! And just when I thought I was safe in Champion City, Stella threatened to squash me like a grape if I didn't clean Lluna for her! And after it took me three and a half hours to do that, Stampy wanted me to go out for a picnic with him and Stacy!"

"Couldn't you have just said _no_?" Jesse inquired. "And for someone who doesn't want anyone to know that they've shrunk down to the size of a grass blade, you don't seem to be doing a good job at it."

"Well, what else did you expect me to do?!" I asked back. "Turn him down and leave him moaning like a spoiled brat whose mother wouldn't buy him the new LEGO Star Wars set? Anyway, I agreed to go with them for the sake of Stampy. And don't get me wrong, the picnic itself was relatively harmless. But during the walk to our picnic spot, Stampy got a big piece of bubble gum stuck on his shoe! He said he was going to take care of it himself, but since he was too busy chowing down on his cake, he never got to it, which lead to me getting stuck in the bubble gum on the bottom of his shoe on our way back!"

"Goddamnit Petra..." Jesse hissed with anger leaking out of his voice. "You could've gotten yourself killed from doing all of that!"

"Jesse, please, listen to me..." I tried to clear up to the massive brunette.

"No! You listen to me, Petra!" Jesse yelled, interrupting my chance to speak even further. "If you had died today from getting eaten by a rabid wolf or squashed underneath someone's foot, I would never be able to hear the end of it! Everyone would think that you ran away or died or both! And deep down inside, I'd know that I was responsible for your death because I was supposed to protect you when you were this small!"

"Jesse, I..." I attempted to calm him down by speaking to him in a reasonable manner.

"I... I just..." Jesse stuttered, beginning to cry as tears fell down his cheeks. "I just love you, alright?! And if I lost you without being able to do anything about it, I would never forgive myself for what happened!" As Jesse finished talking, his tears kept streaming down his face like waterfalls and started to let out a long series of sobs.

"Jesse..." I started, sighing as I struggled to get my words out of my mouth, and hugging his soggy but plushy cheek. "I'm sorry. I really am..." Within the few seconds I used up to apologise to my colossal boyfriend, I started to cry too. I hated crying... It really defeated the purpose of everyone seeing me as a 'tough girl'. Of course, I couldn't just hold it in since I put my super best friend under a lot of stress and worry today, but still, crying was the worst sensation I could ever feel. I continued my apology as my voice cracked and more tears came pouring down my cheeks like two floods occurring at the same time. "I don't know what I was thinking... All I wanted to do was to explore the exterior of Beacontown by myself... And instead, I kept running into dead ends and nearly got myself killed too many times..." I stopped talking for a while as I was too sad to even speak. I kept hugging Jesse's comfy, wet cheek as I let my waterfalls of tears keep flowing.

"Shhh... It's okay, Petra... Let it all out..." Jesse assured me, rubbing my body with one of his jumbo-sized fingers. After a while, I calmed down and my crying came to a stop, complete with my waterworks turning themselves off.

"I'm sorry I worried you this much, Jesse..." I said to my giant friend with a depressed tone in my voice, finally letting go of his cheek. "Do you forgive me?"

"I do, Petra." Jesse beamed at me, wiping away my tears with his hulking finger. "Just don't run off like that without telling me again, okay? I want to at least be by your side if something bad's gonna happen to you."

"Okay, Jesse." I said, the depression in my voice now replaced by happiness and joy. "And I love you too..." I acknowledged as I hugged his warm, plushy cheek again and let myself sink into it, starting to yawn as I slumped into his soft skin.

"Let's get you to bed, my little warrior." He laughed, resting me on both of his smooth, squishy palms. I continued to yawn as I stared up at Jesse's beautiful face, finding myself lost in his gorgeous emerald eyes and sinking into the delicate surface of his warm white hands. My vision slowly turned black as I closed my eyes...


	14. Feeling A Little Dangerous Again

**_Chapter 14: Feeling A Little Dangerous Again_**

* * *

As I heard the sound of my roof getting torn off, I slowly opened my eyes to abandon my dream world, and I was greeted back to reality with Jesse's big face staring through the gaping hole he just created, his vibrant emerald eyes focused on my small body laying on the familiar fabric surface that was my bed.

"Good morning, Petra." My towering boyfriend beamed at me.

I let out a yawn as my vision and urge to move around came back to me, and I simply replied "Good morning, Jesse. I see that you gladly put me back in my little house."

"Yeah, you sorta fell asleep in my hands last night so I figured I'd get you to bed." He laughed, placing his hand behind his head.

"Thank you, Jesse." I complimented the giant brunette as I laughed along with him, getting out of bed as I did so. "I'm sorry for running off yesterday, by the way."

"Hey, I'm just glad you didn't die out there." Jesse smiled, giving me a hulking plate with a big carrot on it. "The world's pretty big... And you're pretty small."

"Yeah, I know." I chuckled, jumping onto the white round platform that is the plate, digging into the large carrot, taking small bites out of the gigantic food, chewing the teeny mouthfuls and swallowing them as I continued to talk to Jesse, who was watching my tiny form munch away at the big carrot.

"So what do you want to do today?" I asked my giant sweetheart out of curiosity. "I was thinking that maybe we could have another walk outside Beacontown and find an epic cave or something..."

"Well, I do kinda want to say 'no'..." Jesse pondered, looking skeptical about my idea.

"What? Why 'no'? What do you mean?" I asked him back.

"Well, I mean... You did say that you almost got yourself killed by a wolf yesterday." Jesse bought up the past incident like he was still that worried about me.

"But still..." I started to refute the brunette's point. "My chances of running into a wolf like that _were_ very slim..."

"Yeah... You do kinda have a point there..." Jesse admitted, scratching the back of his head a bit. "I guess I could take you outside again." He laid his open hand out on the floor for me to walk onto it.

"Just give me a second please." I said, wanting to finish the large carrot that my giant friend gave me for my breakfast. Not feeling defeated by my titanic first meal of the day just yet, I shoved the last bits of the healthy vegetable into my mouth and chewed them at a relatively slow pace, wanting my taste buds to savour every last nutrient of the food. I swallowed the samples down my throat and into my stomach, my belly completely satisfied as I pat it and walked onto the centre of Jesse's palm, which prompt him to bring me up to his adorable smiling face.

"Remember, Petra..." My giant super best friend started. "If you see any landmarks that grasp your attention, just let me know."

"Sure do." I answered, nodding my head. He slid me down into the pocket of his white shirt as he finished his sentence.

"Woooooo!" I yelled in excitement with my hands held up in the air as I slid into the deep, restricted yet soft interior of Jesse's shirt pocket.

"I bet it feels good sliding down in there, huh Petra?" Jesse asked, opening his shirt pocket with one of his fingers and peeking inside it.

"It sure does!" I proudly proclaimed. "Sure, I'm not really a big fan of the cramped, restricted space of it, but certainly feels good to slide into it! You really do a good job at making a drift into your pocket feel like an amusement park ride!"

The huge brunette I was hiding in then laughed lightly at my compliment as he closed up his shirt pocket, walking out of my bedroom and into the corridor where everyone else's rooms were.

* * *

After walking through the quiet and barren corridor, Jesse and I found ourselves in the main hall, where Lukas, Radar, Axel and Olivia were just sitting there in front of the large glass window, and all of them were waiting for Jesse it seemed.

"Good morning, Jesse!" Radar exclaimed as he stood up and waved at him, the excitement in his body as clear as day. This also caused the rest of our friends to stand up as well.

Jesse forced a playful laugh and replied "Good morning, Radar" to the cute brown childish intern. "And good morning to the rest of you guys too." He said to the remainder of his friends, waving back at them. "Sorry for acting all distraught and hysterical by the way. I just had a pretty rough day yesterday."

Radar gave Jesse a hesitant giggle and said "Don't worry, Jesse. I get those kind of days too sometimes." He started fiddling with his notepad and pen as he said this.

"Oh, by the way, Jesse..." Lukas started to ask, which seemed to have caught the brown-haired brunette's attention since he fixated his focus on the blonde man who was standing next to Radar. "Have you seen Petra anywhere? She doesn't seem to be around Beacontown anymore... It's almost like she's become a ghost or something... Like she doesn't even exist anymore..."

"Yeah, I get it, Lukas." Jesse chuckled anxiously. "But no, I haven't seen Petra anywhere. Are you trying to say that she ran away? That doesn't seem like something she would do. It's not like she would want to leave us anytime soon."

"Well, if you see her anywhere, just let us know." Lukas said, beaming his shiny set of teeth at Jesse.

"So what do you want to do today, Jesse?" Axel, the big hunk stood up from his spot as he asked my hiding man. "Do you want to go start a riot in Boom Town or have sort of a play fight with Magnus?"

"Don't give him any ideas, Axel..." Olivia tugged his arm as she called Axel out.

Jesse chuckled as he watched Olivia pull at Axel's body part, and the movement of the brunette's body as he did so made me shift and turn in his pocket a bit. "No thanks, Axel. I think I'll just wander out of Beacontown for a bit. After all, a mayor's gotta take his break sooner or later." He began to walk away from his friends as he neared the big door behind him.

"Hey, Jesse..." Lukas pondered.

"Yes, Lukas?" Jesse inquired in response, planting both of his feet on the ground, stopping in his tracks and turning around to pay attention to what Lukas had say.

"I don't know if you've noticed yourself..." The blonde-haired diary writer continued, walking up to Jesse. "But the way you're pretty much wording everything you say... It seems like you're trying to hide something from us."

"Is this true, Jesse?" Olivia joined in, walking over to Jesse too. "You know you shouldn't be hiding secrets from us. Not from your best friends. Whatever it is you've got on your mind, we can help you get over it."

"Yeah!" Radar joined in too, placing his notepad and pen underneath his green jacket and sandwiching himself in-between Lukas and Olivia. "Take me for example! At first, I thought I was going to do a terrible job at being your personal assistant, but ever since you and your friends convinced me that I'm nowhere near as useless as I thought I was, I'm not even anxious about anything now! For the most part anyway... " Radar scratched the back of his head as he made that last bit sound more like a confession than anything. "And I didn't even have to tell you anything about my anxiety! So what are you hiding, Jesse? Come on, tell us. You know we won't bite." Radar held Jesse's hands as the innocent intern reassured his master.

 _Oh crap, this is going to be the place where the truth finally comes out... Come on Jesse, don't blow this for me..._

"I don't know what you guys are talking about..." Jesse started, lightly swatting Radar's hands away from his own. "Honestly, I don't have anything to hide. I think you're all just worrying a bit too much about me... Besides, you now know that my paranoid attitude was only a one-day thing."

"Well, okay... If you say so..." Lukas said with uncertainty in his voice. "But what's that in your pocket?" He pointed his index finger towards the noticeable shape I was making in his pouch. _Now I was screwed..._

"Uhh... Flowers! For Stacy!" Jesse quickly made up on the spot.

"Really? I always thought that pumpkin pie was more of Stacy's thing, but I guess that all girls in general like flowers anyway..." Lukas replied, buying Jesse's lie and placing one hand on his shoulder. "Deliver those flowers to Stacy and take all the time outside Beacontown you need, Jesse."

"Will do! I'll see you guys later!" Jesse proclaimed as he started running towards the big door again, waving 'goodbye for now' to his friends.

"Don't stay out there for long, Jesse!" Radar exclaimed, proudly waving back at his master in red suspenders.

"I know, Radar!" Jesse shouted back to his assistant as he ran out of the Order Hall.

* * *

When Jesse was a good distance away from the Order Hall, he reached into his shirt pocket and took me out when not many people were around to see me at the size of a rabbit.

"That was a close one, huh Petra?" Jesse asked me.

"Yeah... When I saw Lukas stick out his finger to poke me, I thought my size-related secret would be no more..." I muttered as I ran my hand through my long, red hair.

"Well, it's a good thing that I can always find a way to get out of sticky situations, huh?" Jesse inquired rhetorically with a laugh.

I laughed along with the suspender titan as I gave my word on his rhetorical statement. "It sure is, Jesse."

"You big ol' softy." He taunted me with a playful tone in his voice as he tickled my face with his index finger. The feeling of his hook caressing my skin made me convulse and burst out into an uncontrollable laughing fit.

"Didn't I tell you to stop that like three or four days ago?!" I guffawed in joy and amusement, trying desperately to shove his finger away from me. My gargantuan boyfriend finally bought his fingers away from my tiny body to give me a chance to regain the breath that I lost from his tickling session.

"Good morning, Jesse!" I heard a child-like voice exclaim as Jesse turned his head to divert his attention to the source of the voice. I climbed up on my knees after I regained my breath to see that Stampy was over there waving at Jesse with a huge grin on his face and Stacy standing by the hyperactive adult's side.

"G'day, Stampy!" Jesse greeted the overzealous individual.

"I didn't know you were familiar with Australian phrases, Jesse." I wisecracked in a joyful manner. The huge man in red suspenders just casually chuckled at my somewhat forced banter.

"And... Petra?" Stacy noticed my presence, her somewhat bright emeralds for eyes fixated on my tiny body standing on Jesse's open palm.

"Hello, Petra!" The man-kid in the orange cat hoodie greeted me, closing his eyes with a grin and swinging his free hand from left to right.

"Greetings, Stampy." I welcomed him back, just showing off my open hand without even waving it.

"What are you doing today?" Stampy asked me, trying to make his eyes just as wide open as an actual cat. "Will it involve Jesse the Gentle Giant over here?"

I gave a heartlighted laugh at Stampy's new nickname for my tall boyfriend. "You're a funny boy, Stampy. You know that?" I asked him rhetorically.

"Yeah, I know. I just like to think that it's a natural habit of mine." Stampy giggled at my proclamation, looking down at his own feet as he did so, only to see that his shoelaces had untied themselves again.

"Uhh... Stacy?" Stampy requested his companion, pointing down at his unfastened laces. Stacy sighed as she complied to fasten Stampy's laces for him.

"So yeah, like Stampy asked you... Where are you guys doing today?" Stacy asked us out of curiosity as she was tying Stampy's shoes.

"Petra and I are thinking about going outside Beacontown for a quick walk." Jesse established our desire for me.

"Just be careful you don't step on Petra by accident, Jesse!" Stampy joked with his signature cheerful laugh.

"Yeah, like you unawarely did to me?" I bought that event up like it only happened to me an hour ago.

"It was just an accident!" Stampy retorted, not losing his good-natured voice one bit.

"I don't care, try looking where you're going next time!" I rebutted in a slightly mischievous manner, which caused Stampy to laugh even more. By the time he stopped laughing, Stacy had finished tying his shoelaces.

"There. Hopefully they'll stay like that this time." Stacy declared, getting back up from her knees.

"Thank you, Stacy." Stampy praised his friend. "I wish I could do that by myself, but I just can't seem to get the hang of it. Perhaps you could give a step-by-step tutorial on how to tie my shoes?"

"Sure. Anything for my loveable dork." Stacy cooed, playing with Stampy's face in her hands, which again, caused the adorable manchild to laugh seemingly uncontrollably. "I hope you two have a good time out there!" Stampy's female partner wished us, waving one of her hands to the sky.

"Thank you, Stacy! See you and Stampy later!" I waved at the two good friends as Jesse put me back in his shirt pocket and walked over to the big red gate that was separating us from the big, vast outside world.

* * *

"Do you see any places you'd like to check out, Petra?" Jesse asked me as he kept walking forward and looked up at my small being holding onto a few chunks of his brown hair.

"Not yet I don't." I asserted, making eye contact with his bright emerald eyeballs and back to the large, open environment around us. "Keep looking. You never know, we could find a village or a desert temple..."

Jesse kept walking around the endless plains of grass and huge trees as I continued to scan the environment for noticeable structures with my chocolate brown eyes. After a few minutes of searching our surroundings, Jesse and I both found a large hole in the never-ending field of green that mostly lead to a cave of some sort.

"Now that's the sort of place that I'm talking about!" I exclaimed in excitement, pointing to the large tunnel.

"Whoa! Are you sure, Petra?" Jesse asked me, coming off as an overprotective father figure again, his emerald eyes making contact with me yet again. "There's no doubt that these caves could be way dangerous than they already were at normal size."

"Oh, come on Jesse!" I reassured the large brunette I was sitting on. "You don't have be so overprotective of me! You know I can handle myself just fine! Besides, I guess you could say that I'm feeling a little dangerous again..."

"Well, okay..." He considered. "But if you really want to explore this cave at the size of a flea, it's your funeral." Even then it seemed like he was joking with the _"it's your funeral"_ part, I knew he wasn't lying about it. Regardless of this however, I gave a buoyant snicker and proceeded to climb off of his large head, white shirt and blue trousers, landing safely on the tall grass. Jesse and I then started to walk into the intimidating tunnel, with me staying right behind Jesse's bulky black shoes every step of the way...


	15. A Little Near-Death Experience

**_Chapter 15: A Little Near-Death Experience_**

* * *

Jesse and I found ourselves trekking our way down the dark and long cavern as scary, atmospherical noises filled our ears. I got a fair few shivers down my spine from these sounds and the atmosphere, but I managed to brush them off as soon as I got these feelings. After all, I was Petra the Warrior, part of the New Order of the Stone! How could I be afraid of anything?

"Are you still sure that this is the kind of place you want to explore, Petra?" Jesse asked me as he focused his face on my tiny body walking right behind his large feet.

"Yes Jesse, I am absolutely sure!" I proclaimed. "Dark environments and scary noises mean this is it!"

"Okay, little girl." Jesse joked with me as he let out a lighthearted giggle and held up a torch. "Just remember to stay behind me." And Jesse began to wander around the cave again, with me staying right behind him every step of the way.

* * *

As we ventured farther down the cave, with Jesse protecting me from the odd hulking, gigantic monster, placing spare torches on the ground and walls, and stopping in his tracks to mine certain minerals every once in a while, such as coal or iron, we eventually found ourselves deep in the redstone level, where Jesse bought our downward descent to a stop to mine all the redstone ores he could find.

"I'm sure Olivia will appreciate the extra redstone." Jesse beamed as he mined the glowing ores with his iron pickaxe.

"Really, Jesse? An iron pickaxe?" I poked a fair bit of fun at the brunette titan's decent tool. "I thought that with all the diamonds we found back in the day, you'd have built a _diamond_ pickaxe by now."

Jesse laughed as he continued to mine the redstone ores and give me his response. "Well, a diamond sword is really the only thing I need most of the time."

"Well, what about obsidian?" I inquired. "That stuff's slow as all hell to mine with any other pickaxe, and even if you do manage to mine it, you won't even get it unless you're using a diamond pickaxe."

"Yeah, I know." My giant boyfriend commented. "I just prefer to use iron pickaxes because they're moderate at best."

"I'm just saying, it won't hurt to make a pleasant transition to _every_ kind of diamond tool." I quipped.

"Hey, at least I didn't decide to craft a golden pickaxe and name it _Mister Butter_." Jesse joked with a chortle. And that's when I suddenly let my hands run around my entire body and I realised that I didn't even have Miss Butter with me! If only I knew that this would be the sort of place I wanted to explore!

"I didn't bring Miss Butter with me!" I exclaimed in sudden realisation, which caused Jesse to stop collecting the redstone and crouch down at me with a face of shock. "Oh my god, what was I thinking?! If only I'd have known that I would want to explore such a place like this, I would've bought her with me without a doubt!" You'd think that considering the large amounts of ass I've kicked with Miss Butter at my disposal, I would've bought the trusty sword with me every time I go out with Jesse! But no! Since I would've been travelling on the top of Jesse's head or in his pocket most of the time like this, I didn't see much of a reason to even bring it with me!

"Calm down, Petra!" Jesse reassured me, picking me up in his palm and letting his green eyes get lost in my tiny chocolate ones. "Just because you didn't bring Miss Butter with you doesn't mean you're _completely_ defenceless. After all, I did save your skin from monsters the further we got."

"But still, what good would my fists do against someone who's fifty times taller than me?" I hysterically asked, clenching both of my fists and bringing them up for Jesse's emerald eyes to see. "I'm just about as useful as that one character in a video game who can't do anything to defend themselves efficiently!"

"Everything will be just fine, Petra!" Jesse claimed with a grin, stroking the side of my body with his huge finger. "We're gonna get out of this unscathed like old times, you'll see!"

After getting these newfound sensations of panic and hysteria out of my system, I finally calmed down and laid my entire body on my big boyfriend's soft palm, my arms and legs spread wide like a starfish. "Okay Jesse, proceed." I said in my casual, laid-back tone.

And with that, the brunette held out a torch in his other hand and we were off deeper into the cavern again.

* * *

After descending into the cave's more darker sides a bit, we found ourselves at the all-too-recognisable diamond level, where puddles and lakes of lava in the stone floor were becoming more common than they were at iron or even gold levels. Regardless of these dangerous hazards and the odd occasional monster every now and then, we trekked forward, finally coming to a dead end, signifying the end of the cave. Me and the giant man in red suspenders were able to lay our eyes on five ores situated on the floor, walls and ceiling.

"Well, Petra... Should I get to work?" Jesse asked me, laying me down beside his hulking right foot and pulling out his iron pickaxe.

"Sure. Mine away, Jesse." I gave my word to him.

As soon as I gave him permission to mine the precious diamond ores, Jesse started mining them like a hyperactive child would gladly chew away on his favourite candy. In felt what like hardly any time at all, all five of the diamond ores we saw were now in Jesse's possession as he held one of them out to me.

"Good job, Suspenders." I complimented the big guy while nicknaming him after the article of clothing that stuck out to me the most.

"Do you think there's more diamonds beyond this dead end, Petra?" Jesse asked me, pointing his thumb at the clean stone wall behind him.

I was rather hesitant about what my titanic friend was suggesting since we could accidentally dig into a lava lake this far down, but I simply replied "It's worth a shot."

"Then here goes nothing!" Jesse declared, digging into the hard stone one block at a time.

* * *

By the time Jesse dug about seven blocks forward, my ears started hearing what heard like hissing noises all around us. Starting to feel paranoid again, I walked as close as I could to Jesse's black shoe and tapped it to get his attention, which surprisingly worked just as well as I expected it to.

"What is it, Petra?" My giant boyfriend asked me as his face turned to focus on my tiny body standing near his feet.

"I think you should stop mining right now and get us out of here, Jesse..." I stated to the hulking man in red suspenders as I felt my bones shiver. "All these hissing noises are giving me a bad feeling..."

Jesse laid his body close to the wall he was digging through as he held his hand close to his ear to listen out for exactly what was making those creepy hissing sounds. "Sounds like a dungeon..." He thought.

"That doesn't sound like a dungeon to me..." I murmured in fear.

"Well, I suppose there's only one way to find out for sure..." Jesse claimed, continuing to mine away at the blocks of stone.

"JESSE, DON'T!" I shouted to him. But it was too late. As soon as the stone block disappeared, out came a silverfish which caused Jesse to jump to the side with a yelp, out of it's way as it squirmed towards my small form. Honestly, I was really scared of silverfish when I was at normal size, but I always managed to relive my fear a bit by poking fun at their size, calling them _as tall as the end of my boot_. And now, I was wishing I didn't tease the organism about their microscopic height because the ginormous grey creature that was standing right in front of me was just mocking that snarky side of me.

I found myself unable to move an inch as the big silverfish just simply stood still and stared at my petrified body. I forced a laugh as I tried to lighten the mood with it. "So... how's your family?" I rhetorically inquired, knowing damn well that silverfish weren't able to speak a slight lick of English. In fact, the only thing these creatures could really do that could even qualify as legitimate speech was hiss at their prey.

Then without warning and only a simple hiss, the silverfish opened it's big, gaping jaws at me! The hideous monster then started squirming after me, hellbent on having me for it's dinner! As I squealed at the spiky, scary monstrosity like a five-year-old girl, I started to run away from it. Me and the silverfish both ran circles around Jesse's feet as the giant brunette just did nothing but watch us. I hoped that I'd be able to lose the silverfish by constantly running around Jesse, but the silverfish was slightly faster than me! When it was just a millimetre away from my tiny form, the frightening monster drew it's razor sharp teeth while it was still chasing after me and snapped them shut as soon as it opened them! If I was even a fraction of a second late in dodging it's fangs, I would've been nothing but silverfish supper for sure!

"JESSE, HELP! DO SOMETHING!" I screamed as the silverfish kept crawling after me.

"Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Jesse quickly replied as he watched me run away from the silverfish like I was the gingerbread man.

"ANYTHING REALLY!" I yelled back at him as the silverfish nearly caught me in it's massive blades for teeth again. I kept screaming in fright as the big foreign creature continued to chase after me without losing any breath whatsoever. When me and the silverfish were in Jesse's view again and away from the stone wall he was standing behind, the tall man kicked the silverfish to the side with his right foot, sending it flying towards the wall and damaging it, but unfortunately, causing more of it's friends to crack out of their shells and join the party!

"NO, NOT THAT, YOU IDIOT!" I squealed as I kept running away from the gang of silverfish and frantically signalled for Jesse put his hand down on the ground. "DIDN'T YOU LEARN ANYTHING FROM ALL THOSE MONSTER BOOKS I MADE YOU READ?! MORE SILVERFISH WILL COME OUT IF YOU ATTACK THEM!" I jumped onto Jesse's palm and he quickly bought me up to safety, away from the crowd of silverfish that were now gathering around his feet. "Jesus Notch..." I muttered as I stared down at the swarm of grey, tiny monsters. _Man, silverfish are way more scary up-close!_

"So should we run?" Jesse suggested as he tried not to cringe at the silverfish nibbling at his feet.

"Yeah, without a doubt!" I exclaimed, pointing towards the way we came. "RUN!"

* * *

As I gave the word, Jesse started to run away from the silverfish swarm while he continued to hold me out so I would act as his personal sat-nav. But even then, I had no idea where the exit was because of how far in we went! "Just keep moving forward!" I shouted. As soon as we lost the small crowd of silverfish, more of them started to rain down from the stone blocks above us and all I could do was to pray that none of them would drop near me! Luckily, this 'rain' stopped when we got back to redstone level and Jesse was too fast for them to land anywhere near me.

But after we got out of the silverfish flood from above, a sharp, pointy arrow whizzed right past us, just barely missing our bodies! In addition to the stream of silverfish we avoided earlier jumping up the stone blocks after us, we also had an army of heinous skeletons and zombies by our right side to deal with!

"TO THE LEFT!" I shouted, obviously pointing to the left. Jesse complied with no hesitation at all and started running to his left, moving his head and body all over the place to avoid getting hit by the skeletons' deadly arrows.

"Where did we come in?!" Jesse asked me as loud as he could, continuing to get out of the skeletons' line of fire and run from the zombies.

"I DON'T KNOW!" I replied in the same volume as him. The shower of silverfish then started to come into our views again as they appeared in what seemed like a small tidal wave shape behind the skeletons and zombies. Jesse just kept running away from the monsters as we both came to a fork in the path. More zombies started to come out of the left path so unless they were actually guarding the exit, that option was out of the question.

"RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT!" I chanted, pointing to the right. Jesse did so and barely avoided getting grabbed by one of the zombies as he turned around. The silverfish wave and the rest of the monsters were getting closer to us the longer Jesse ran down our current path with me being held out in his open hand.

"I think I see sunlight over there!" Jesse panted as he started to run out of breath.

"Where?" I asked the tall brunette.

"There!" He exclaimed, pointing to the big, open entrance with his free hand.

"FASTER JESSE, FASTER!" I screamed as our pursuing wave of silverfish literally drowned the zombies and skeletons in front of them. Jesse made a mad dash for the cavern exit as he swiftly placed me in his shirt pocket and began to run as fast as he could, the feeling of him running at such a rapid pace making my hair blow in the air.

"We're almost there!" Jesse shouted, running even faster towards the hole and away from the silverfish wave as he quickly made moderate jumps on each of the stair-like platforms that lead to our way out, not slowing down for anything.

* * *

When we both made it out of the perilous cave, I also noticed that the swarm of silverfish weren't slowing down for anything either, for they were _still_ in pursuit of us, jumping up the stone platforms towards us!

"JESSE, BLOCK IT OFF!" I screamed in the most desperate tone I could muster. As Jesse heard my plea, Jesse took several dirt blocks out of his trouser pockets and started using them to cover up the entrance to the cave as fast as he could. Before even one silverfish could slip out, Jesse had finished covering the hole up with dirt just in time.

As Jesse let out constant sighs of relief from covering up the entryway, he plopped himself onto the grass behind him. I crawled out of his shirt pocket and moved over to his comfy belly, lying down on my back with my legs crossed and arms held above my head. The feeling of his stomach moving up and down as he breathed made me feel just as calm and relaxed as he was right now.


	16. Size Up, Dude!

**_Chapter 16: Size Up, Dude!_**

* * *

As Jesse let out constant sighs of relief from covering up the entryway, he plopped himself onto the grass behind him. I crawled out of his shirt pocket and moved over to his comfy belly, lying down on my back with my legs crossed and arms held above my head. The feeling of his stomach moving up and down as he breathed made me feel just as calm and relaxed as he was right now.

"That was a close one, wasn't it?" I asked Jesse as I continued to lay down on his stomach.

"Yeah. Sure was, Petra." He proclaimed as he cupped me in his hand and began to stand up again. "What do you want to do now? I think anything that doesn't have to do with silverfish will be fine by me."

"How about we head over to the beach next to Beacontown and Champion City? That's a relatively harmless location." I suggested after hesitating for a few seconds, most of them spent from finding myself lost in the friendly giant's dreamy lime green eyes like I normally do.

"I couldn't have come up with a better idea myself, my tiny warrior." Jesse beamed at me, exposing his clean, sparkly teeth and placing me in his shirt pocket; my usual hiding place from now on it seemed. I grabbed the very peak of his pouch with my hands and forced my head outside it to get a good view of the scenery around us. Jesse began to wander around the endless fields again...

* * *

And in what only felt like a few minutes, we arrived at the beach. Despite it being a nice and sunny day, not many people are there today. I noticed a few beachgoers playing in the sea here and there, but other than that, the beach seemed very deserted today. Which I found kind of odd, since I would've expected the place to be overwhelmed by massive crowds of people in their swimsuits running around the sand, splashing each other with water, and building sandcastles with pleasant weather such as this. Instead, the whole beach was being patrolled by like four and five people if you don't count the lifeguards sitting at the top of their towers.

Jesse noticed my frown of disappointment and asked me "Why the long face, Petra?"

"Oh, it's nothing, Jesse." I lied. I wasn't normally one to be honest with my best friends when I came off as upset or unwell.

"Come on Petra, be honest. It's not like anyone will hear us from here." Jesse replied, pointing his open hand to the relaxed beachgoers in the sea who were pretty much miles away from us. "Unless we scream at the top of our lungs, of course."

"Again, it's nothing. It's just that this beach isn't as populated as I thought it would be today." I said, turning my frown upside down a little bit.

"Hey, less beachgoers means less danger for you, my little girlfriend." Jesse smiled as he offered his large open hand to his pocket where my small form was peeking through. "Do you want to stay behind me again?"

"Yes please." I accepted, holding onto one of his fingers with my hands, which led to me being placed in the grass behind Jesse's ginormous shoes.

"Be careful you don't lose me, Petra." The tall brunette instructed me as he started walking over to the beach, the grass around his feet rustling as he strolled through it. I pushed the tall blades to the side as I followed Jesse. I was like an explorer hacking their way through an endless jungle filled with vines at every corner.

* * *

After Jesse and I got out of the grass, which almost felt like a maze to me on a few occasions, we found ourselves at a sandstone staircase which led down to... well, the sand. Jesse began his descent down the steps and I followed suit, staying as close to him as I could. I didn't want to lose the big target, but at the same time, I didn't want him to crush me by accident.

When Jesse planted both of his shoes on the sand, he started walking over to the right, and I did the same as him as he continued to find the perfect spot for us to sunbathe. I kept maintaining my position behind him, my 'sweet spot' being inbetween the huge footprints that Jesse was making in the long, never-ending patch of sand.

* * *

Jesse had finally found us our ideal resting points after walking what felt like so far away from the stairs we went down, but was really only a mile. I was able to keep myself entertained by hopping in and out of Jesse's footprints, but since the tall guy was walking around the beach for far longer than I expected, I just wanted him to stop and lay out his damn towel already.

"Jesse, we've been walking around this heck-hole of a sand heap for hours now..." I panted as I let my knees sink in the sand.

"What happened to your patience, Petra?" Jesse laughed as he began to search around his body for his towel. "I thought you always said that patience is a key necessity for survival."

"Well, there's only so much I can take before I become so restless and testy!" I shouted back to my giant boyfriend in anger. That was when I realised I was coming off as needlessly harsh to Jesse, and soon enough, my pout of annoyance turned into a frown of melancholy. "I'm sorry, Jesse..." I apologised. "I'm just not usually this impatient..."

"Hey, it's okay, Petra." Jesse grinned as he revealed his long lapis blue cloth of fabric and laid it on the sand a good distance away from the roaring sea behind us.

"Lapis blue towel..." I noted as I walked across Jesse's lengthly towel.

"The same colour as my underwear." Jesse added, pulling down his trousers a bit to show off his deep blue boxers.

I almost laughed out loud as he exposed his lapis pants in front of me. "You might wanna put those away, Jesse..." I cracked up as I pointed at his britches. "The last thing you want to experience as a beloved hero in residence is humiliation."

"I know, just wanted to lay out a fun fact for you." Jesse laughed with a blush as he pulled his trousers back up, practically making his knickers invisible to the naked eye.

"Well, I could use a nap under the sun after that little near-death experience." Jesse yawned as he got ready to park his rear end on the towel. "Make room." Jesse advised me to get off his towel by waving his hand to my left. I did so, and as my combat boots were touching the sand, Jesse stationed his full physique on the blue cloth.

"It's good to know that you remembered to take care of your needs, but what about _my_ needs?" I plead to my large exhausted sweetheart, repeatedly patting my chest to nail the hint into his head even further.

"Don't worry Petra, I sure as heck didn't forget about your needs." Jesse affirmed as he pulled out a thin cyan carpet from his trouser pocket and laid it on the sand beside his hefty towel.

"Thank you, Jesse." I complimented my titanic boyfriend as I planted my tired body on the shrinkee-sized rug. I let out a satisfied sigh as I stared up at the sky and heard the nearby sounds of Jesse breathing right next to me.

* * *

"This is the life, Jesse..." I commented as I shifted my body and chocolate brown eyes to face Jesse, who did likewise as he made our eyes meet. "Just a giant you, me, the sounds of the rushing sea, the sun casting it's warm beams of light down on us, no-one to spoil our downtime... It's like I'm in paradise, only my small height is making it even better than it already is."

"Yeah..." Jesse found himself lost in thought as we both resumed to laying on our backs. "You're right, Petra. Every time I have a lay down here at the beach, it really does feel like paradise... And the way _you're_ describing it, I kinda wish I could see things from your perspective right now..."

"I actually wish you _could_ see things from my perspective to be honest." I insisted. "Life is way more exciting when you're the size of someone's shoe."

Jesse laughed at my statement and simply replied "I can only imagine" as he continued to stare at the clouds in the sky.

After a few seconds of staring at the sky with Jesse myself, I sat up, turned to face the large brunette and asked him "Can I roam about this place as I please?"

And he responded with "Sure. Just don't run off or go too far. I'm not saying that you're not capable of doing much... In fact, you're pretty much the most talented and versatile member of our group, but just because you have that honour doesn't mean your abilities have translated well to pint-size. Just be careful when you walk around on your own, okay?"

"Will do!" I answered, giving Jesse the salute and running off on my own into the endless eternal patch of sand.

* * *

As I walked away from Jesse and over to the more deserted areas of the beach, I suddenly heard loud earthquake noises, accompanied with violent tremors. And this was before I even got that far away from my boyfriend!

The earthquakes were getting even worse as a feminine human figure started to come into my view. By the time these tremors got bad enough to the point where they could flip me upside down, which caused my hair to get sand stuck in every possible strand of it, I was able to make out who seemed to be running towards me, but at the same time, completely unaware of my presence...

It was Nell. The blonde gigantic surfer gal's attire for today just consisted of a green and white striped bikini and nothing else. The bikini certainly did it's job well at covering up the _dudette's_ somewhat small breasts and bum.

"Yo, Jesse dude, how are you doing?" Nell greeted the large brunette behind me who started to get up from his towel. The giantess' bare feet were getting closer to me now, and I knew I had to take action somehow. Without time to figure out exactly where Nell's feet would land next, I quickly dived back to Jesse. But before I could even touch the sand with my own skin, Nell's titanic foot fell on me, crushing what felt like most of the bones in my body and planting me into the sand, causing a lot of it to get stuck on my articles of clothing. The blonde's sandy clodhopper then lifted off my poor, flattened body as she left behind an enormous footprint with my small form caught in the front of it.

"Hi, Nell!" Jesse greeted the surfer girl back as she came to a stop. "What brings you away from the surf shop?"

"Oh, ya know, just the bodacious thrills of the wind blowing through my hair, the endless fun of surfing those big waves, and the gnarly feeling I get when I run through all this sand barefoot!" Nell stated her three favourite things about the beach like it was the easiest thing for her to do.

"I didn't know you were into earthing, Nell." Jesse chuckled.

"What's _earthing_ about?" Nell inquired out of curiosity.

"Owwww..." I groaned as I forced my injured, sandy body out of Nell's huge footprint, which caught the blonde and brunette's attention.

"Petra?" Nell noted in confusion as she closed in on my damaged ant-sized form. "What happened to you, girl? I don't remember you being a little dudette before." She measured me with her fingers as she called a _little_ _dudette_.

"Accidents first, explanations later." I cut to the chase, pointing to the footprint where she stepped on me. "You kinda crushed my ass over there."

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Nell exclaimed. "I didn't see you there! Really, I didn't!"

"What do you mean Nell crushed your ass, Petra?" Jesse asked. _Oh god, did I_ ** _really_** _have to tell him...?_

"I stepped on the little dudette by accident!" Nell answered for me. "I didn't mean it, Jesse dude, I swear! I couldn't even see her!"

"Petra, this is what I meant when I said your versatility won't have translated well to pint-size." Jesse started moaning like an overprotective dad as he stood up and walked over to my poor body by Nell's side. "I mean, you're really lucky that Nell here didn't squash you dead by accident."

"I said I couldn't see the little dudette!" Nell exclaimed, swatting her arms at Jesse, who was trying to calm her down by putting her arms back in a downward position.

"Guys, calm down!" I shouted, which caused both colossal individuals to turn their heads at me. "If Nell didn't mean it, she didn't mean it! Just leave her alone!" The delivery of my whining made me sound like this _Chris_ person that no-one wanted to speak of during the previous decade.

"But you could've died, Petra!" Jesse replied as he kept trying to calm Nell down.

"And I'm still alive so those chances were completely thrown out the window!" I retorted, accidentally slipping back first into Nell's footprint. "Besides, I can still handle myself just fine like this!"

"No, you can't!" Jesse yelled at me close-up with anger present in his voice. "Like I said, if you died and I couldn't have done anything about it, I would never forgive myself for what happened! I can't lose you without even knowing what killed you! Regardless of whether Nell stepping on you was an accident or not, you need to be more careful!"

"Guys, just chill out, okay?!" Nell clamoured, making gestures with her hands for Jesse to calm down.

"You could've killed her for all I know!" Jesse barked back at Nell, pointing a devious index finger at her.

"That was just an accident, dude!" Nell rebutted, her hands flailing up in the air. "Maybe if she had just dived out of my way or something..."

" **EVERYBODY JUST STOP!** " I screamed at the top of my lungs, which caught the attention of both Jesse and Nell as they scrambled over to the footprint I was standing in. I gasped for breath for a few seconds, then I did my best to clear everything up. "Let's not keep this argument going just because of an accident. If there's anything else we could be doing instead, it's having some fun. After all, isn't that what beaches are for?" I shifted my attention to Nell, the hulking behemoth with long yellow hair. "And you did say that what happened with me and you back there _was_ just an accident so... I forgive you."

"Oh, Petra dudette, thanks!" Nell complimented me as she picked me up out of her footprint and held me close to her rather warm cheek. I hugged her chop with asking any questions, and after a few seconds had passed, she put me back down on the sand in front of her feet. Jesse didn't look all that pleased with Nell's apology, but he still forced an adorable smile on his face anyway.

"So... what do you want to do?" I beamed at the massive blonde giantess before me.

* * *

Jesse watched me and Nell run within the white lines of a volleyball court as he sat down and positioned his tushie in the centre of his blue towel. Nell jumped up and sent a yellow plastic ball my way and I slapped it back over to Nell's side, the ball just barely scraping against the long white net. Nell caught the bendy sphere in her hand as she power-slided to the net.

"Not too bad, little dudette!" Nell applauded my efforts as she stood back up and walked away from the net, back to the middle of her side of the court. "Here it comes again!" The giant surfer girl threw the ball in the air again, jumped up and lobbed it my way.

At first, finding the right ball for me to play with was quite a challenge. Nell insisted we should just use a regular beach ball, which obviously would've been a pain for me to work with since I was only half the size of the big planet-shaped object. After many failed attempts of getting the ball out of my side of the court, I eventually gave in and told her "Alright, I can't do it like this anymore. Do you have any smaller balls we can play with?" And to my luck, Nell conveniently had a small plastic ball with her, much like the ones me and Jesse used to play with in those youngsters' ballrooms when we were toddlers.

I put my mind back on the present just in time to send the mouldable, soft ball back to Nell, this time sending it well over the net and into Nell's hands.

"Whoa, you're quickly becoming better at this, Tiny Petra!" Nell exclaimed with a laugh. "Wouldn't you agree, Jesse bro?" She asked my relaxed boyfriend as she turned to face him.

Jesse slowly sat up and responded with "Yeah Nell, I agree. Even though she's not as tall as she used to be, she can still play volleyball just fine, provided you give her the right ball to work with." I laughed a bit as Jesse gave his word on Nell's question.

Nell and I continued to pass the ball back and forth to each other as she stroke up another conversation with Jesse. "Oh Jesse, you were saying about this thing called _earthing_?"

"Oh yeah, that." Jesse realised as he stood up, letting his blue towel sink into the sand under his shoes. "Earthing is a lot like walking, except you do it completely barefoot."

"Heh, that's kinda like what I'm doing here at the beach right now." Nell commented as she tossed the ball back to me.

"Yeah, exactly." Jesse clarified. "Like if I was walking around without my shoes or socks on right now, _that_ would be considered earthing. I've also heard that earthing provides your feet with many health benefits that wouldn't even be possible if you were walking with footwear on. I might actually start doing it myself in the future."

"So in other words, I'm currently treating my feet well without even knowing it?" Nell inquired as she refused to take her focus off the plastic ball we were going back and forth with.

"Technically, yes." Jesse simplified as he shrugged his shoulders.

"That is awesome!" Nell admired this new information as she just let the plastic ball drop on her foot. I walked over to the hulking surfer giantess' huge feet, planting my own on her big toe as I stared into her sea-coloured eyes. "What do you suggest we do next?" I asked her out of curiosity.

* * *

After Nell declared that she wanted to surf some waves, she carried her sandy feet over to the brim of the ocean, laying her olive and white surfboard on the waves and plopping her whole mass on the timber. I ran over to the huge surfer girl and climbed up the arenaceous sole of her foot and onto her back. I could almost hear her giggling as I clambered up her sand-covered sole.

When I found myself a safe, comfy spot on Nell's back end, the chrome-haired behemoth started to scramble her surfboard into the sea, almost causing me to slip off her back on a few occasions, which pretty much forced me to hold on at all times.

By the time Nell had bought her protracted surfboard into the ocean, she simply let the crowd of waves guide her as she held onto the plank of green and white timber with her hands.

I stared into the endless lake of salty water as I sat on Nell's back, the movement of the surfboard as it travelled up and down the odd wave making me feel like I was on a carnival ride. I whooped and squealed in excitement for every wave that me and Nell surfed over.

"You sure sound like you're having a lot of fun on there, little dudette!" Nell said as she kneeled her head over to look at me.

"Yeah, no kidding, Nell!" I shouted with such enthusiasm and buzz surging through my tiny body. "Do you come here often?"

"Oh, you bet, little girl!" Nell replied as she proceeded to stand up, causing me to hold onto her back and climb up her long yellow hair and onto her noggin. Doing this while she was surfing the waves was pretty difficult, but I managed to mount myself up to the top of her head without having to put a lot of backbone into it. "Don't get me wrong, gal, I may love running the surf shop back at Beacontown..." She continued. "But that enjoyment I get when I surf the waves with the wind blowing through my hair? Way more satisfying than selling surfboards to people who want to get into it."

"Yeah, I see what you mean." I commented as I peeked over Nell's noggin to get a glimpse of her sapphire eyes. "I may not be into surfing myself... Hell, I never even found time to give it a try... But I can certainly understand that feeling of finding your hobby more entertaining than your day-job." I resumed my visual examination of the endless pond of water around us and I peeked behind my back to see Jesse on the strip of sand waving at me and Nell.

"Uhh, Petra?" I heard Nell call my name in a worried manner. "You might wanna take a look at this..."

"Nell, why do you sound so-" I immediately stopped asking Nell what her problem was when I saw what she was pointing at: a massive tidal wave careening right towards us. "Worried...?"

"It looks like a big one, dudette!" Nell exclaimed as she desperately tried to turn away from the hulking tower of water. "Hang on!"

I quickly closed my eyes and grimaced as soon as I saw that the wave was going to knock us both off the surfboard and into the sea.

" **Wipeout!** " I heard Nell exclaim just before we got hit by the tremendous wave, which knocked me off of Nell's head and into the ocean, regardless of how tight I held onto her hair.

"Mmmfh! Mmmmmfh!" I muffled into the ocean floor as I reminded myself not to open my eyes while I was underwear for they could get stung for all I know. "Nell! NELL!" I screamed for the giantess' help as my cries were lost in bubbles. I couldn't hold my breath for much longer, and I sure as hell didn't want to die like this... Suddenly, I felt a hand grab me from the gravel-like surface under the sea and bring me back up to the surface, finally giving me the freedom to open my eyes and breathe in the fresh air once more with a gasp!

I looked over to my left to see my saviour. It was Nell, whose entire body and blonde hair was dripping with ocean water all over her. She ran back to the sand where Jesse was, holding me very tightly in her clenched hand, refusing to let go of me for nothing.

When she rushed all the way to Jesse's resting point, Nell laid me down on the sand beside her wet feet as I started to cough and sputter a lot, most likely from all that ocean water I caught in my mouth. Nell crouched down at me and asked "Are you okay, Petra? Am I gonna have to find a pint-sized lifeguard for you, little dudette?"

"No, Nell..." I gasped, coughing a little more. "I'm fine. Really. **A-CHOO!** " My statement was only turned to be false in Jesse and Nell's eyes when they both heard me sneeze really aggressively.

"Oh dear..." Jesse said in a worried tone, picking me up and placing me on his soft palm. "That sound's enough for me to figure out that you're not really okay, Petra..."

"Jesse, I'm fine..." I moaned in a raspy tone, sniffling really noisily as snot began to drool down my left nostril, which I wiped off with my black sleeve.

"Come on Petra, how do you really feel?" Jesse asked me sincerely. "Be honest."

I coughed really violently before giving the frowning brunette my honest feelings. "I feel so cold and wet..." I groaned. "I can't move my body... I can't stop coughing or sniffling... I don't feel like myself at all... My forehead feels too hot for it's own good..." I let out a few light coughs as I finished my last sentence. "I honestly never thought I'd say this but... I feel like crap."

"Oh, you poor little thing!" Nell cried as she came into my view beside Jesse. "I'm so sorry, Petra! I didn't know the waves were going to be that bad today!"

"It's not your fault, Nell..." I assured the chrome-haired giant surfer girl with a coughing fit. "It's my fault... If only I wasn't so carefree and stupid..."

"Come on Petra, let's get you home..." Jesse said as he and Nell started to walk away from the rushing currents and back to Beacontown, keeping my poor form cupped in his hands as he kept his emerald eyes fixated on me.


	17. By Your Side

**_Chapter 17: By Your Side_**

* * *

Back in my bedroom, Jesse and Nell put me into my small house and onto my bed, wrapping me around my blanket once Jesse changed me into my light blue pyjamas. I kept coughing and sneezing uncontrollably on the fabric surface, sniffling and feeling terrible every time I did. I let out a moan of nauseation as I laid my head back on the pillow.

"Geez..." Nell griped as she turned to Jesse. "Your tiny girlfriend doesn't seem very well, Jesse... I'll just let you handle this." The blonde giantess walked away from the equally tall brunette as he peeked his head through the hole to check on my sick self.

"So, Petra..." Jesse started with a look of unease written on his face. "On a scale from 'uhhh' to 'aaah', how bad are you feeling?"

I coughed and sniffled some more before I could get my words out. "Terrible." I said in a raspy tone. "I shouldn't have gone surfing with Nell... What was I thinking? At least this isn't as bad as Wither Sickness..."

Jesse put a finger on my forehead to see how abnormally warm I was. "Oh my god..." Jesse murmured as he took his finger off my skin. "You've got quite the temperature, Petra..." He dug his hand in his shirt pocket to reveal what was making the cylinder-shaped bulge in his pouch. "Here, drink this." He said as he laid a large jar of medicine down to my right. "You'll start to feel a lot better when you get some of that down your throat."

I kept staring at the colossal bottle with uncertainty. The liquid that the jar contained was dark green, which felt me feel a little uneasy about taking even a small sip of it. "Jesse, that looks like creeper urine!" I exclaimed to my giant boyfriend. "What makes you think that this is going to make me feel any better?!"

"Oh, come on Petra! It's good for you!" Jesse informed me as he grabbed the huge jar in his hand, opened it and dipped a plastic spoon in it.

"I'm not swallowing that!" I protested with a coughing fit. I covered my mouth with my hands as Jesse brought the spoon full of the green liquid close to my tiny mouth.

"But if you _do_ swallow it, you'll feel a lot better! Trust me!" Jesse moaned.

"Jesse, I would rather drink Ivor's idea of poison and nausea potions put in a blender..." I groaned the more Jesse held the spoon close to me.

"Petra..." Jesse called my name with a frown.

I sighed and gave in, simply saying "Okay..."

"If you really do have the feeling that you're not going to like the taste of this, just close your eyes and think of you and I having a big adventure out in the endless fields of grass, okay?" Jesse suggested with a smile.

"Okay, I will..." I sighed as I closed my eyes and tried to think happy thoughts about me and Jesse...

* * *

 _Jesse and I were running along the plains of grass with our hands intertwined, and the sounds of his shoes and my boots rustling through the millions of grass blades that were in front of our feet._

 _I wasn't tiny anymore... I was back to my normal size and slightly taller than Jesse once again. We both laughed as we ran forward, our clothing and hair blowing in the wind. I looked over to the cute brunette as he gave me that signature grin I adored so much._

 _"Where are we going, Petra?" He asked me as I started to tighten my grip on his hand._

 _"To a place I've always wanted to take you!" I proudly declared as I began to speed up, which caused Jesse let out a yelp as I took him to my desired destination; a huge, gigantic mountain with a rear end that stuck out like a sore thumb. No offence to Mother Nature though._

* * *

 _We both laid out our legs on the edge of the mountain's highest peak, breathing in the fresh air as we let out pleasant sighs._

 _"What a view, Petra..." Jesse trailed off as he found himself lost in the beautiful scenery. I don't know why, but I really wanted to cup his cheeks in my hands and play with them right now..._

 _"I know, right?" I replied with a giggle and placing my hand on Jesse's, which made the both of us blush and smile at each other._

 _"I know you've already heard this a thousand times by now..." Jesse started as his cheeks became about as red as a tomato. "But... I love you, Petra." He slowly wrapped his arms around my torso and rest his head on my chest._

 _I pat his head with my gloved hand as I closed my eyes a bit, feeling my own cheeks become as red as his. "I love you too, Jesse..." I replied with a passionate, caring tone in my voice. "Ever since I first met you, I just knew that we were going to be the best of friends..." I wrapped my arms around his neck and rest my head on his shoulder. Hugging Jesse, or at least, getting hugged_ ** _by_** _him was how I liked to imagine hugging a life-sized teddy bear would feel like. Feeling his warmth pressing against my body was enough to make me happy._

 _"Come here, you big ol' goof..." I cooed to Jesse as I brought his head up to mine and kissed him bang on the lips, our eyes closing as we both sank into the kiss._

 _Our arms continued to stay wrapped around each other as I prolonged the kiss for as long as I could, the sensational feeling of my warm lips being connected with his making my heart catch on fire and convulse on the inside._

"Open up the tunnel Petra, here comes the train!" I heard Jesse exclaim as I suddenly opened my eyes to find myself back at the size of a rabbit and in the bedroom of my mini-house.

* * *

"Huh?!" I blurted out as Jesse shoved the spoon of medicine into my mouth, the revolting taste of the dark green liquid being too much for me as I let out muffled screams for Jesse to take the spoon out of my mouth.

Jesse took the utensil out of my mouth as I swallowed the medicine and started to cough uncontrollably and convulse on the bed.

"Yuck! That tastes horrible!" I cried as I frantically ran my hands across my tongue to get the disgusting taste out of my mouth, even though I already swallowed the revolting liquid down my throat. I constantly panted as I wrapped myself in my blanket and grimaced.

"You know Petra, you could've at least _tried_ to enjoy the taste of your medicine..." Jesse sighed as he watched me roll myself up like a sushi roll.

"I don't care! That medicine was disgusting!" I whined as I tossed and turned on my bed. "What was in that?!"

Jesse put a finger on his chin and thought for a moment, then he gave me the full list of everything that was in my medicine. "Glistering melons, water, apple seeds, pumpkin pie, mushroom stew, milk, carrots, and baked potatoes."

I dropped my jaw and coughed again as I just took in the entire, unabridged list of Jesse's ingredients. "ALL THAT?!" I screamed. "That's going a bit overboard, don't you think?"

"Hey, whatever makes you well again, my beautiful gentlewoman." Jesse replied, nuzzling my hot forehead with his finger. I laughed as the hulking brunette stroked my brow with his bulky finger. "No matter how sick or upset you are, you can guarantee that I'll always be by your side to make you feel better." He brought his sentence to an end with an adorable smile as he closed his eyes.

"You say that as if I'm your only child, Jesse." I commented with a laugh.

"Hey, that's what best friends do regardless, right?" Jesse obliged as he picked me up in his hulking hands and brought me to his stunning emerald eyes.

"Yes, Jesse... Yes, it is..." I rasped as I sniffled and wiped my nose's drooling snot away with my clenched hand. I started to lay down on Jesse's soft palm as I continued to keep my focus on his gorgeous green eyes. "I swear, I could fall asleep on your palm right here, right now... It's so comfy..." I crawled over to his thumb and hugged it really tight. Jesse's mouth opened with slight laughter as he watched me cuddle his bulky thumb.

"You are so cute like this, Petra. You know that?" He asked me if as it was a well-known fact. The huge brunette's question caused a minor blush to build up in my rose-coloured cheeks. I started to yawn as I found myself lost in his grass-dyed orbs. "Come on Petra, one more spoonful of medicine before you go to sleep." He said, placing me back on my blanket and dunking his plastic spoon into the jar filled with the sickening dark green elixir. I almost grimaced and got the desire to throw up as I saw him douse the spoon in the container.

"It's not _that_ bad, my tiny angel." Jesse assured me as he took the plastic utensil out of the glass vessel. "It'll make you feel a lot better in the morning. Like I said, just close your eyes and think happy thoughts. They can be about me and you, your friends, the things you enjoy doing, anything you want to put your mind to really."

I gladly obeyed to my boyfriend's words and closed my eyelids, causing my vision to fade to black as I bought my attention to the beautiful world of... well... my imagination.

* * *

 _"Petra! Help me!" I heard a voice scream from deep down inside the cave I was standing in. I've been too familiar with that voice to know that my ears aren't playing tricks on me... Jesse was in danger!_

 _"Hang on Jesse, I'm coming!" I hollered, unsheathing Miss Butter from the straps located on the back of my tunic as I ran towards the source of Jesse's voice._

 _"Petra! Please save me! I don't wanna die!" Jesse cried as I soon saw that he was down there, surrounded by eight zombies, each one of them coming from every direction._

 _"Jesse!" I called out his name as he diverted his attention from the gang of zombies to me standing in the distance. "Aaaaaaah!" I let out my signature battle scream as I leaped from the stone platform I was standing on and stabbed one of the eight zombies right in the brain. Their comrades turned their skulls and came limping towards me, pissed off at the fact that I just killed their buddy._

 _"Yeah, that's right! Just try to lay a finger on me!" I yelled at the zombie horde as they slowly staggered their way towards my energetic body. Jesse pushed two of the lazy ghouls aside as he ran towards me, causing the rest of the zombies to jump away out of fright as they just avoided getting knocked over like dominoes. Jesse stood right by my side as he got his enchanted diamond sword at the ready._

 _"Let's do this, Petra! Just like we practiced!" Jesse shouted as our backs connected and our eyes met. The crowd of zombies began to limp towards us again as the two that Jesse pushed down got back up on their own two feet._

 _"Ready, Jesse?" I asked him as he gave me a determined grin._

 _"As ready as I'll ever be, girl!" Jesse responded. "Just give the word, I'll be all over the freaks on my left, and you'll be buttering the monsters on your right!"_

 _"Break!" I clamoured, which caused me and Jesse to ran over to our respective sides of zombies. I dug Miss Butter right into my first zombie, stabbing it in the heart and making the putrid ghoul close it's eyes and plop on the floor with it's last dying groan, vanishing into the air with a_ **POOF!** _and puffs of smoke that scattered in every direction. I kicked the zombie to my left in the face and shoved Miss Butter into the chest of the one behind me, killing it instantly since I managed to stab it in the heart. The ghoul behind me died exactly as it's friend did. I ran over to the zombie I knocked over, jumped up with a scream, and jammed my golden sword into it's brain before it could even get a chance to get back up. It moaned in defeat as it disappeared and left behind smoke puffs in it's place._

 _"Come on! Is that all you've got?" I taunted the remaining zombies as I kicked the air and played with Miss Butter. I saw Jesse kill off his last zombie by slicing it across the chest with a yell, and the smelly ghoul groaned as it hit the ground and vanished, replacing it's dead carcass with smoke puffs. Jesse turned his head over to me, and his face of joy and pleasure turned to one of fear and shock._

 _"Petra, your right!" He yelled, pointing to the sight I immediately diverted my attention to; a zombie that was so close to grabbing me with it's dirty hands._

 _"Aaah!" I let out a frightened yelp as I jumped out of the way of the zombie's hands, causing it to instead grab the empty air with it's revolting mitts. Jesse ran towards the zombie with a scream and pinned it onto the cold stone floor._

 _"Get him, Petra!" Jesse requested as he prohibited the horrid ghoul from getting back up with his hands. I took a few steps forward, raised Miss Butter up to the sky, and delivered my killer line..._

 _"And stay dead for good, you freaking zombie!" Then I shoved Miss Butter into it's head, causing it to groan and disappear with a_ **POOF!** _and leave behind several puffs of smoke that travelled in every direction. Jesse gave a victory laugh as he watched me scathe Miss Butter and wrapped his warm arms around my soft torso. I rest my head on his shoulder and wrapped my arms around_ his _torso._

 _"You were such a good help there, Jesse." I complimented his efforts as I felt him pat my head and nuzzle my bandana._

 _"Well, you know what CaptainSparklez once said, Petra..._ Teamwork makes the dream work. _" Jesse stated with pride present in his voice._

 _"You have no idea how glad I really am to have you as my best friend, Jesse..." I cooed as I closed my eyes and connected my warm lips with Jesse's. Whenever I kissed him, I felt like I was floating in an endless sky of indescribable joy and love with my adorable boyfriend in red suspenders..._

 _When we both broke from the kiss and I regained my breath, I heard Jesse say..._ "Here comes the plane!"

* * *

I was greeted back to reality with Jesse bringing his spoonful of medicine close to my mouth. I opened up my food and drink entrance with a "Aaaaaaah" and my boyfriend fed me the distasteful remedy. I almost let out a sound of disgust, but instead, I simply swallowed the dose down my throat while maintaining my casual expression at all times.

"Now have this." Jesse said as he gave me a pint-sized cup of water. I grabbed the drink in my hands, sat up, and like the medicine, I swallowed the gratifying beverage down my throat to drown out the unpleasant taste of my medicine. I let out a sigh of contentment as I felt the enjoyable stream of water swim down my gullet and into my stomach.

"Thank you, Jesse." I blessed my friend as I sniffled a little more. "I needed that."

Jesse laughed as he kissed my heated forehead. "Good night, Petra." He said as he put the roof back. "Sweet dreams. Get well soon."

"You too, my friendly monster." I replied, causing his cheeks to heat up a bit at my affectionate response. After a few seconds, the roof above me was put back where it was and my vision faded to black as I closed my eyes and drifted my subconscious off to Dreamland...


	18. Out of the Frying Pan

**_Chapter 18: Out of the Frying Pan..._**

* * *

I opened my chocolate brown eyes as I groggily sat up and flicked the light switch beside me. The big redstone lamp that was hanging way above my tired body lit up as soon as I flicked the switch upwards.

"Aaah!" I let out a yelp as I quickly moved my hands in front of my eyes in an attempt to avoid getting blinded by the shimmering light. After a few seconds, my brown orbs were able to adjust themselves to the sudden change in brightness and I got out of bed, letting out a yawn and smacking my lips as I proceeded to walk down the stairs and into my living room. Apparently that medicine Jesse gave me last night seemed to work! I felt like I could move all of my joints wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted! My forehead didn't feel too hot for it's own good, I wasn't coughing or sneezing uncontrollably anymore... It really seemed like I could throw that "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" mentality out the window and say "hello" to my new creeper urine-esque medicine.

I opened the door to my kitchen and reached down in one of the chests for two slices of bread. I inserted the two portions into the toaster and flicked the switch downward to begin the appliance's two-minute countdown. For every second that passed, the toaster seemed to tick like hands on a clock. I could've used the furnaces this morning, but since I noticed a toaster in Ivor's chest of _Tiny Blocks_ , I felt like doing it the old-fashioned way.

As the toaster began to heat up my slices of bread, I proceeded to get some butter out from one of the chests as well and lay Miss Butter on the table like a knife. I even got a shiny white plate ready as I waited for my toast to pop out.

With a **_CHIME!_** accompanied by a springy sound, my now steamy, brown slices of bread popped out of the toaster as they just stayed there and sizzled, waiting for me to take them out and onto the plate where they belonged. They gladly placed my slices on the plate, dipped Miss Butter into... well, the butter... and spread it across the heated bread as if I was using a kitchen knife.

When I finished spreading butter all across my toast and cut both slices in half, I brought the miniature version of my trusty sword over to the sink and began to rinse it as I got every bit of it soaked with water and rubbed it with a towel. I turned off the sink's supply of cold water and just laid Miss Butter close to a chest.

I brought the plate into my living room as I sat down on the wooden couch. I tucked into the delectable toast, taking reasonable bites of the hot slices, crunching them down into measly crumbs with my teeth and swallowing them down with a gulp. "Mmmm... My compliments to the chef. Who is obviously myself." I said as I rubbed my belly and placed the empty plate beside me on the couch arm to my right.

I walked over to the wooden doors separating me from my real ginormous bedroom, and just in time as I heard and felt earth-shaking tremors as two giant black shoes positioned themselves outside my house. I could just tell from the choice of clothing that it was Jesse.

I sauntered out of my mini-house and over to Jesse's hulking trainers as I looked up and waved at him. "Good morning, Jesse!" I greeted him.

Jesse laid down his wide open hand on the floor as the giant man greeted me back. "Good morning, Petra! Did you manage to get yourself a good night's sleep?"

I stepped in the centre of Jesse's palm as I gave him my answer and the huge brunette bought me up to his face. "You bet I did, my good friend. I think that medicine of yours made me feel better overnight too..."

Jesse placed his big index finger on my forehead to get a feel of my now reasonable temperature. "Hmm... Your temperature seems to have decreased gradually." Jesse noted as he took his finger off my brow and placed it beside his lips. "Have you coughed or sneezed uncontrollably at all this morning?"

"No, Jesse." I said with a smile. "That medicine really seemed to do the trick. Thank you."

"I told you I'd always be your side when you feel terrible." Jesse cracked with a blush and gorgeous grin.

"It may not have been the best thing I've ever tasted, but it's certainly done a lot for my health." I proudly said, sitting down on Jesse's open palm.

"I'm glad I could make you feel better in some way, my small warrior." Jesse said as he tickled my cheek. I tried my best to hold in my laughter, which seemed to come out as sounds of a little girl giggling, as Jesse's long claw continued to carcass my soft cheek. He brought his finger away from me with a cute look of love on his face.

"I think it's best for us to avoid the beach for now..." I trailed off as I laid down and sinked my entire body into the plushy, warm skin of Jesse's palm. "Well, the ocean at least..."

"Yeah. I couldn't have said it better myself." Jesse complied with me as he nodded his head. My body started to flood with uneasiness as I got back up on my feet and hesitated to ask Jesse something...

"Jesse, have you washed any of my clothes at all?" I asked him with a curious yet anxious tone present in my voice. "The ones I wore to the beach yesterday got all sandy and wet so..." I stopped talking as I got too hesitant to continue speaking.

Jesse laughed and pulled out the clothes that shrunk down with me out of his trouser pocket, bringing them up to me in his other hand. "I'd never forget about anything for my girl..." He said with an adorable smile. Jesse laid both of his hands on the ground again and slid both me and my clothes onto the floor behind the house that rested beside my ginormous queen-sized bed. "When you told me about what happened with you and Axel that night, I gave all of this a wash and left it to dry in my bedroom."

"Oh, Jesse..." I cooed as I picked up all of my dry clothes in my arms. "I know I've given you this a lot... but you really are the kindest friend I could've asked for."

"I know, Petra. And it's the best compliment I can ever get from you." Jesse said as he crouched down on his knees and pat me on the head with his soft index finger.

"Give me a few minutes please..." I said as I walked back into my house and Jesse parked his backside on the floor.

"Take all the time you need, sweetheart." Jesse replied as I closed the wooden door behind me with my foot.

* * *

As I sat down on my bed, I laid all of my dry clothes on the plushy blanket, took off my light blue pyjamas and started changing by putting on my black panties and bra. I then wrapped my signature stripped blue and green bandana around my hair next and slipped into my matching black shorts and socks. I put my black fingerless glove on my right hand and slithered my identically coloured sleeve onto my left arm. I finally completed my outfit by putting on my blue tunic and slipping my covered feet into my long black combat boots. I walked over to a nearby mirror, looked at my reflection as I stroke a few "kickass girl" poses that came at the top of my head, and said to myself with a smile "Damn, I look good."

* * *

I came out of the mini-house with Miss Butter in my gloved hand as I gazed up at the gigantic Jesse, who seemed to be neglecting the idea of taking my trusty sword with me since he took Miss Butter out of my tiny hand.

"Hey!" I exclaimed as I saw my reliable blade slide a modest distance on the floor away from me and Jesse. "What gives, Jesse?"

"Petra, you're not taking Miss Butter with you today." Jesse said with a blunt tone in his voice. I almost couldn't believe what my boyfriend was saying! _Not taking Miss Butter with me today?_ What was he thinking?!

"But Jesse, what if we have a repeat of that silverfish incident, but with more frightening zombies and skeletons?" I tried to change his mind, but he simply shook his head in disapproval.

"You just got better, Petra..." Jesse said as he drooped his head. "Even if you say you're alright yourself, I'd wait at least two or three days to go searching for danger again if I were you."

"So what, do you _want_ me to die?!" I shrieked as I stamped my foot down on the quartz floor and sighed in anger.

"I don't want you to die, Petra!" Jesse replied as he stroked my shoulders with his fingers in an attempt to calm me down. "I'm just saying that... I don't want you to get in any danger after you've just got better. Maybe you could have some apology time with Nell while I get some more glowstone from the Nether." Jesse stood up and picked me up in his hand as he spoke.

"Oh, come on!" I whined as I slumped to my knees. "Why have you got to have all the fun today?! I don't wanna clear up yesterday's accident with Nell! I wanna visit the Nether with you!"

"Well, not today." Jesse said, leaving me upset at the fact that he wouldn't let me go with him to a dangerous place I knew the best out of everyone in our group of friends.

"I'll tickle your footsies..." I cooed with both my hands pressed together as I tried my best to smile with tears starting to stream down my face.

"I appreciate the offer, Petra..." Jesse started as he prepared to slide me down into his shirt pocket. "But I'm still saying no. You can go kill your time with Nell today."

"Awww... that's not fair..." I sobbed as I slid down Jesse's hand like a water slide and into his pouch. I sniffled as I wiped away my tears and Jesse began to walk out of my bedroom and into the corridor.

* * *

Jesse arrived at Nell's surf shop with me in his pocket and greeted the blonde surfer gal with a wave. "Good morning, Nell!" He said cheerfully.

"Oh, Jesse dude, good morning!" Nell greeted my bulking brunette back. I slowly emerged from Jesse's pocket as Nell waved back at him. "And good morning to you too, Tiny Petra dudette!"

"Good morning, Nell..." I sighed with an uninterested wave. Oh, how I really wanted to go to the Nether with Jesse... If only he didn't say I couldn't go because I "just got better".

"So what brings the two of you cool lovebirds here on this fine, sunny morning?" Nell asked us as Jesse laid me down on a nearby table.

"I was hoping you could take care of Petra while I'm out farming glowstone from the Nether." Jesse explained, pointing his open hand at me.

"Why can't she just go with you?" Nell asked out of curiosity. "Is it because she's too small for such a dangerous place like that?"

"What? No, not at all, Nell..." Jesse blurted in response to the blonde girl's question. "Do you remember what happened when you took Petra surfing yesterday?"

"Yeah... I never saw that massive wave coming and we both got knocked off so hard that your poor girlfriend got sick." Nell answered with a face of contrite written on her face.

"Exactly." Jesse stated. "And even though she's just got better this morning, I'm leaving it up to you to make sure she doesn't get herself in any danger today."

"But Jesse!" I complained, which caused my giant boyfriend to turn his attention to me.

"I'm sorry, Petra, but the Nether's no place for someone who just recovered from sickness." Jesse countered. "Just be a good girl for Nell and I'll be back before you can say _Cool beans_ , alright?" He opened the door and walked out of the shop. I could only watch in a grief-stricken manner as I saw Jesse walk back to the Order Hall without me.

"Cool beans..." I said, knowing that Jesse really wasn't going to come back as soon as I said that. A few sobs raised from my throat as some tears started to stream down my face.

"Oh come on, Petra dudette, don't cry..." Nell said as she wiped away my tears with her index finger.

"But Jesse... he left here while he's going to the Nether of all places..." I sobbed as Nell continued to wipe away my tears. "What if he _doesn't_ come back? What if he dies there and I couldn't do anything about it? I have to join him there, Nell."

"Chillax, Petra. If Jesse says he's going to be fine, the dude's going to be fine." Nell assured me in an attempt to cheer me up, which obviously failed since I was still crying.

"Please, Nell..." I sniffled as I struggled to get the words out of my mouth a bit. "You have to bring me to the Nether. Jesse's idea of bringing me here for the day... it's gonna get him killed."

"Sorry Petra, but no can do." Nell responded as I eventually stopped crying, but still felt a pain in my heart from being stuck somewhere I didn't want to be. "Since Jesse's the mayor of Beacontown, I can't disobey a word he says. And if he comes back and notices you've gone, I would never hear the end of it."

"But still... Jesse could be in big danger there..." I claimed as my voice cracked. "Please... you have to send me to the Nether with him..."

"Again... I'm sorry, Petra, but I can't ignore Jesse's requests if he's the mayor." Nell replied. "Come on. You can at least have a fun time staring at my surfboards before I sell 'em."

Nell's surfboards were all propped up behind a wooden counter which the surfer gal walked behind. The gargantuan planks came in flashy colours such as green, blue, red and yellow.

With the sounds of the door opening and a bell ringing, a massive citizen in dark and light blue clothing walked into the store and up to Nell who was behind the desk. "Welcome to Nell's Surf Shop, dude! How may I help you?" Nell asked her customer as he browsed around the huge arsenal of surfboards.

"I'll gladly take that green surfboard, thanks." The customer said as he pointed to it.

"Anything for a dude who wants to get into surfing!" Nell exclaimed as she handed the green protracted plank to her consumer. "That'll be five iron ingots."

The patron reached into his pockets and laid Nell's exact currency on the counter. "Here you go." He said as he began to walk out with his new surfboard.

"Come back again soon, dude!" Nell waved behind his back as he closed the door.

 _What if I could run outside the door without Nell or her customers noticing? It seems kind of risky, but it's for sure the best idea I have right now..._

Another customer in a grey hoodie and black leggings stepped into the store as they opened the door and caused the bell to ring.

"And how may I help _you_ , missy?" Nell inquired as she laid her shoulders on the counter.

"I'll have that blue surfboard over there, please." The rather feminine consumer said as she pointed to the surfboard of her choice.

"One blue surfboard coming your way, girl!" Nell exclaimed as she walked over to the blue surfboard. Now was my chance!

With no hesitation whatsoever, I leaped off of the tall table and onto the wood floor.

 _CRACK!_

"Nnnngh..." I tried my best to hold in my cries of pain as my fragile legs collided with the wooden surface. Then, as fast as I could, I quickly hauled myself over to the wide open exit before Nell's customer could start walking out the shop with her new surfboard, who much like everyone else in this town, seemed to be completely unaware of my presence.

I slid down on the stairs on my bum, which probably wasn't the best idea since each step I landed on hurt my precious backside and wasn't getting me down as quickly as I hoped, as indicated by the violent tremors from Nell's consumer becoming louder. "Gaaah..." I moaned as I just ditched this idea and jumped off the remaining steps, onto the sand that surrounded the area of Nell's building instead, and just in time before the unaware customer could squash me as flat as a pancake!

I simply watched the patron walk out of Beacontown with her new surfboard wrapped around her arm for a few seconds, then diverted my attention back to the Order Hall, which I had to find several hiding spots and dodge the feet of many unaware civilians just so I could arrive at the huge, distinguishable building made of quartz...

* * *

I rolled under the small gap between the floor and the hulking double doors to be greeted back to Jesse's friends having a private conversation in the hallway. Lukas, Axel, Olivia and Radar... Thankfully, none of them had noticed me just yet... I should probably start by grabbing my miniature version of Miss Butter from my bedroom. If I know the Nether all too well, that place is certainly not suitable for one who doesn't have any weapons on them.

"Guys... Have you ever considered that Jesse might be hiding something from us and he doesn't want us to find out what it is?" I heard Lukas ask the others as I swiftly ran from treasure stand to treasure stand.

"I don't know..." Radar started to reply nervously. "When you think about it, Jesse _has_ acting rather strange recently..."

"Yeah... I keep hearing him call Petra's name but last time I checked, she was nowhere to be seen." Axel added. "Unless you count that realistic action figure Jesse showed me..."

"Which you put through all kinds of hell a few nights ago..." Olivia joined in as I started to clamber up the stairs.

"I thought we forgot about all that!" Axel retorted as he became annoyed at the fact that Olivia would even dare to bring that night up again. I rolled under the gap between the floor and the wooden door to grant myself entry into the corridor where all our bedrooms were and away from the conversation my friends were having.

* * *

I walked along all the doors with different coloured signs on them until I found one that had a blue sign. Now, call me _Captain Obvious_ all you want, but since blue was my favourite colour and aligned perfectly with my position in the New Order of the Stone, this was definitely my room.

This time, I crawled under the small gap and into my queen-sized bedroom. Even if I had a house that was perfect for my current size in here, I still couldn't get over the fact that everything is so freaking tall compared to me! I slowly walked into my mini-house, opening the door and clambering into the kitchen, where the now dried off Miss Butter was waiting for me to take her on a big adventure. I got a tight grip on the sword's bright yellow handle and held it up in the air like a brave heroine, a massive grin becoming visible on my face.

"You and I are going to save Jesse's skin like we always practiced, Miss Butter..." I said to the inanimate object as I slid it through the small gap under the enormous door, following suit by rolling under the gap myself. I quickly regained my hold on Miss Butter as I proceeded to walk back out the way I came.

* * *

I slid Miss Butter through the gap under the door to the hallway and rolled my just-small-enough form under it, putting the yellow sword back in my hands as I stood up again. To my surprise, Lukas and the others still hadn't stopped talking so I quickly jumped down and hid behind the closest treasure stand before anyone could see me.

"Well, it's not like Petra would leave us forever without saying goodbye!" I heard Lukas shout to the fat brute known as Axel.

"Hey, isn't it a necessity that all friendships must come and go?" Axel insisted.

"Axel, that's enough!" Olivia yelled.

"I'm sure Petra won't have left us without having goodbye!" Radar quickly butted in. "Maybe she's just out there having the biggest adventure of her life or something!"

"Well... I've had enough crazy for one day." Lukas said with a grunt. "If any of you guys need me, I'll be writing in my new journal."

"I'll just continue sitting here keeping track of all my criterias for today." Radar said as I started hearing scribbling noises, the sound of him writing in his notepad as usual. I heard the door close, and that's when I knew that it was probably safe to move around more freely for the most part.

I ran over to an iron door that was located away from all the treasure stands while scathing Miss Butter on my back. The only problem with this beast of a door is that there was no gap for me to roll under, and the on/off lever was too high for me to even reach. I kept jumping up and down, reaching as high as I could to touch the lever, but to no avail. I panted as I tried to regain my breath from jumping up to get the switch so much. My eyes shifted over to Radar who was still humming to himself and writing in his notepad. Maybe he could help.

I shuffled my way to the giant Radar, climbing up the big steps and poking his brown shoe a few times before he peeked over his notepad to see me touching his footwear. "Oh! Hi, Petra!" Radar exclaimed as he put down his notepad and pen.

"Shhh!" I urged him to be silent as I held a finger up against my lips.

"Oh. Right. Sorry." The hulking intern whispered as he crouched down at me. "What do you want?"

"Jesse's gone into the Nether without me." I answered in a reasonably low volume. "And he won't let me come with him because I just recovered from a declining illness overnight..." I rubbed my hand on my sleeve as I mentioned my sickness...

"That's just because he cares about you, Petra." Radar beamed. "I mean, sure, Jesse can be a little overprotective at times but... he's just trying to keep you safe."

"True, but what if Jesse dies out there?" I asked the tall brown assistant as I looked down at my feet. "If he dies and I couldn't anything about it, then... Please, Radar... You _have_ to take me to the Nether."

Radar let out a sigh of hesitation as he picked me up in his soft hands and said "Okay." He then carried me over to the iron door beside the treasure stands and pulled the lever downward with his left hand, which caused the entryway to open with a creak. I stared down at the long, dark, foreboding corridor that led to the room which contained the big, frightening Nether Portal. The total darkness of the black foyer combined with the scary noises sent a few shivers down my spine...

"Are you sure you want to do this, Petra?" Radar asked me as I started to feel a little uneasy about going to the Nether at this size...

"Yes. I'm sure." I told the cute intern as I tried to force a smile on my face.

"Then it's settled." Radar replied as he took me down the dark corridor, the scary sounds getting even worse as we found themselves in front of the unmistakeable Nether Portal, which just swirled around as it made spine-chilling whooshing noises. Radar put me down on the stone brick floor behind his feet as I gulped, taking baby steps towards the portal as it's eerie hurling noises almost got the best of me. Radar kept looking at me with a face that said "Come on!" as he mouthed the words and moved his clenched fists up and down. As I sighed in partial defeat, I gradually began to speedwalk my way into the portal, brushing off any speck of fear that those whooshing sounds would give me.

I clambered my way up the dark obsidian edge and slowly put one foot into the long, protracted purple passageway, which apparently caused the rest of my body to fall into the portal with no control! The lack of gravity in this violet void made me feel like I was free-falling! I screamed at the top of my lungs and closed my chocolate eyes as I proceeded to fall down into the exit that led to the other side...


	19. And Into the Fire

**_Chapter 19: ..And Into the Fire_**

* * *

I came flailing out of the Nether Portal and smashed face first into a wall of Netherrack. I plunked onto the ground on my back from the impact and let out a groan of pain as I got back up.

"Ow... God, that hurt..." I grunted as I rubbed my hand across my forehead to soothe the pain. I scanned my eyes around the somewhat hellish environment to see where Miss Butter had gone, since I certainly didn't feel the trusty sword anywhere on my back. After a few seconds of looking everywhere from my current position, it turned out that my reliable blade had landed right beside my feet. I picked up the gleaming yellow sword in my gloved hand and swung at the air a few times before talking to it with a smile on my face.

"I sure am glad to have you with me, Miss Butter..." I told the motionless weapon as I walked around the Nether Portal and started to find my way out of my current location. I thought it would be a wise idea to have Miss Butter in my hand at all times, even if I also thought avoiding combat as much as possible would be a good plan too.

* * *

Not even six minutes had passed and I felt like I was walking around this part of the Nether for hours... This whole section made me feel like a rat trapped in a maze. I couldn't even keep track of which paths would lead to my way out and which paths didn't.

"Where's the exit?!" I asked myself as I started to grow tired from walking all over the place and climbing up the Netherrack. Luckily, there were no monsters in this area which I was extremely grateful for, but some directions out of this endless maze would be nice!

I continued to go in circles as I went left, right, up, down... and seemed to do anything other than go forward. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if Jesse had already found me on his way back from harvesting all that glowstone by now! Actually, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't in a part like this. There were so many dead ends and ways to turn that he'd probably step on me by accident trying to get out himself!

* * *

Eventually, I found a big, gaping hole that led out of the maze, as signified by the infinite amount of protracted lavafalls and the huge wall of bedrock in the distance. I stepped out into the vast, somewhat open area of the Nether in it's full, unadulterated hellish glory. I took a quick sniff of the air around me.

"Ugggh! I keep forgetting how bad this place smells!" I grunted as I tried blocking off my nose with my fingers. To say the least, it was horrible. And the equally terrible smell from all the titanic zombie pigmen around me didn't help either. "It smells like rotten flesh and spider eyes in here!" Granted, it wasn't the worst smell I had the dishonour of travelling up my nostrils, but getting used to the putrid air was something that I had to put up with every time I came here, like having to sit through a marathon of unskippable ads every time I wanted to watch a DVD with my friends. I tried shafting the ozone away from my nose as the zombie pigmen just watched me walk away with oinks of interest, leaving me to mind my own business. As long as I didn't do anything to them, they wouldn't do anything to me.

* * *

About a minute into my walk, I had gotten used to the horrible smell of the Nether's atmosphere and so far, I managed to avoid any and all unnecessary encounters with wither skeletons and ghasts by staying out of their sight.

To my left, I heard what sounded like wet rags plopping on the floor, accompanied by the sound of fire being ignited. I turned over there to see a springy dark red magma cube bouncing towards me, leaving behind fire trails as it jumped up and down with mild earthquakes and squishing noises. It certainly wasn't the biggest thing the Nether had to offer, and it certainly wasn't the largest magma cube I ever fought. It was only about three times my size, as opposed to everything else which was roughly seven or eight times my size, so I most likely wouldn't have a rough time bringing _this_ square monster down.

I clenched onto Miss Butter's handle with both hands and screwed up my face as the hot cube sprung closer. "You want a piece of me? Bring it on!" I taunted the cube as I charged towards it with a yell. I shoved my blade deep into it's... stomach? Do magma cubes even have stomachs? Anyway, as I was saying, I shoved Miss Butter deep into the magma cube's burning flesh, which caused it to "die" in just one hit. I say "die" in quotations, because when the cube went **_POOF!_** with puffs of smoke flying all over the place, it split in two smaller versions of itself!

"Ooh... Couldn't resist bringing your friends out to play with me, could ya?" I rhetorically asked the now dead big cube as it's identical smaller twins sprung their way towards me like slinkies. I jumped away from the cubes as I saw them land on the ground where I was and miss their mark.

"Yeah, that's right! Just try to get me, you fat chunks of magma!" I taunted the cubes as swayed my backside back and forth to them. The cube on my right bounced as high as it could go in an attempt to squash me like a pancake. I retaliated by sliding over to it's friend and forcing my golden sword as deep as it could go into the cube's squishy yet steamy flesh. It "died" exactly as it's bigger counterpart did, splitting into two smaller versions of itself upon going **_POOF!_** and letting out puffs of smoke. Now the two cubes were roughly as tall as my boots.

"Hee-yaaaaah!" I let out a loud scream as I kicked the two cubes as far as I could manage, causing them to die for real this time as they hit the ground. I then turned to face the larger cube that was bounding over to me with it's wet, squishy jumping noises. I sliced the flesh cube across it's "body" horizontally, which apparently let me do the whole splitting thing for it since one of the halves that broke off formed a pair of fire yellow eyes, almost as if it was a doppelgänger of itself...

I forced a breath out of my mouth to safety myself as I got ready to lunge at the two identical, boot-long cubes. Rather than kick them to the edge of the earth like I did before, I stabbed the top of their heads with a yell, erasing them from existence as they vanished into puffs of smoke, their deaths complete with that familiar **_POOF!_** sound I always felt satisfied to hear.

I panted and let my weights drop off my shoulders as I scathed Miss Butter on my back, glaring myself the victor of my battle with those magma cubes. "This tiny warrior's still got it..." I told myself as I continued to walk off in a random direction, making sure to avoid eye contact and fights with the giant monsters around me.

* * *

My small body started to get tired from walking along and climbing up all this Netherrack... I kept panting as I carried on my path, which to be completely honest, I was just making up as I went along. My legs felt like they were going to give in at any moment, my arms were getting limp, and my insides felt like they were burning...

"I'm starting to think I shouldn't have come here..." I sighed as I stood still and put my hands on my knees to regain my breath. "This place seems more dangerous than I thought it would be. At least at this size anyway... I should probably find my way back to that Nether Portal..."

I started carrying my heavy legs back to where I thought the Nether Portal was. Unfortunately, I hadn't been keeping track of where everything was, and since compasses wouldn't work in the Nether, my chances of coming back alive were probably as slim as Radar trying to sing well. But I shouldn't give up my hopes just yet though. After all, I'm Petra! I'm not the kind of girl who would quit so easily! No matter what the circumstances were, I would always find a way out of the red danger zone and back into the green field of safety! I smiled as I mentally encouraged myself and continued walking, the aching pain in my body no longer prominent to me.

* * *

"I think I'm on the right track now..." I said to myself as I got a good feeling that I was going to find the portal in no time. I stopped walking and planted my boots beside each other like a soldier as I heard the ear-piercing sounds of glass breaking, accompanied by a man grunting and clinking noises.

I turned my head 90 degrees to my right to take a gander at what was making those sounds. I saw Jesse mining away at a pile of glowstone with his diamond pickaxe, which caused the glowing lantern-like blocks to shatter into four pieces of shiny glowstone dust with just two swings of his mighty tool.

I don't know if Jesse had some desire to show off his fancy red suspenders or what, but the brunette wasn't showing any armour whatsoever. Just his casual everyday attire that consisted of those signature suspenders, his white shirt, blue jeans and black shoes. I'm obviously not the kind of woman who would dare criticise his choice in clothing at all, but even leather armour would be useful when travelling around a place like this! Then again, I was the one who liked to live my life in hard mode...

Jesse mined the very last glowstone block he could find. He laid down his diamond pick and put all the yellow dust in his pockets. "There. I think that's the last of it..." He said as he came walking out of the area where he found all that glowstone, holding up a torch to light his way. His big feet unawarely dragged each other towards my tiny form, the vicious tremors being present as they collided with the ground and caused me to flip on my back. I screamed at the top of my lungs, tightly closing my chocolate brown eyes as I saw the sole of Jesse's shoe "greet" my vision and lunge down at me.

"Whoa!" Jesse exclaimed as I opened my eyes to see that my giant boyfriend had just barely avoided accidentally crushing me under his foot. He planted his dark sneaker next to the other one as he brought me up to his green eyes. He didn't look all that pleased to see me. "Petra?! What are you doing here?! I thought I told you to-"

The brunette's sentence was rudely interrupted by a thundering, violent rumbling noise that seemed to come from behind us. Jesse put on a face of shock as he took his attention off me and stared at the unknown source in front of him. I turned in his current direction to look at what was making that racket and spotted a gigantic colossal monster... A ghast, fixing us with it's bored yet bloodcurdling gaze.

I simply froze in fear upon seeing the hulking white jellyfish-like beast stare at us with it's closed eye sockets... And my newfound size of like half a block didn't make it's intimidating appearance any better either. Seriously, as if these things weren't already massive enough...

The ghast opened it's eyes and shrieked at us, spitting an explosive fireball out of it's mouth and sending it our way!

"Jesse, look out!" I screamed, pointing at the flaming sphere. Holding onto me really tight, Jesse ran to cover behind a wall of Netherrack as the fireball's explosion left behind a crater. The ghast shrieked and shot another fireball out of it's mouth as Jesse and I hid behind the Netherrack. Loosening his grip on me, Jesse and I both went "Phew..." as the brunette immediately focused his emerald eyes on my body with a frown.

"I thought I told you to stay at the surf shop with Nell!" He shouted, aggressively pointed at the wall behind him.

"Shhh!" I silenced him, putting my index finger close to my lips. "Not so loud!"

"Oh, right. Sorry." Jesse whispered, bringing the volume of his voice down low enough so that the ghast wouldn't hear us speak. "What are you doing here, Petra?! I thought I told you to stay at the surf shop with Nell!"

"Well, I didn't want to do that!" I whispered back in anger at Jesse. "Why have you gotta have all the fun when I'm free from the dishonour of being ill?!"

"I clearly told you that the Nether is no place for someone who just got better!" Jesse scowled. "Do you _want_ to feel sick again?!"

"Oh please!" I pouted. "Not once have I ever felt sick upon going to the Nether after being cured!"

"Whatever, that's not the point! Why did you have to disobey me, Petra?!" Jesse loured with daggers in his eyes.

"Staying alive first, explanations later! Let's just find that Nether Portal and get the hell outta here!" I replied, jumping off of Jesse's palm and climbing into his shirt pocket.

* * *

Jesse ran along the Netherrack as fast as he could with the ghast refusing to stay off our tails. The gigantic jellyfish-like creature shot fireballs at the large brunette I was hiding in, and Jesse reacted by weaving to his left and right, rolling underneath the fireballs that came from behind him, and jumping over the craters the black ball-shaped grenades made.

"I don't think it's too far from here!" I said as peeked outside Jesse's pocket to scan the environment around me. "Into that cave on the right!" I pointed at the huge cave that I was able to remember all too well. Mostly the dishonour of being stuck in that maze of a structure for what felt like hours...

Jesse jumped into the cavern with a grunt as the ghast failed to hit him with one of it's fireballs one last time, finally giving up and retracting back to it's friends hopefully. When Jesse and I were at a reasonable distance into the cave, we both panted as he laid down and parked his back on an uncomfortable set of Netherrack. Then again, I'd gladly take that over nothing in a place like this.

"Okay, Petra..." Jesse sighed as I emerged from his shirt pocket again. "We managed to escape that ghast... So now where do we go from here?"

"I don't know." I replied in the most genuine tone I could muster. "This whole cave felt like a maze to me when I came here. I guess we'll just have to try every path and see which ones lead to the Nether Portal."

"Oh no..." Jesse moaned as he stood up and buried his face in his right hand. "This is gonna take forever..."

* * *

Jesse traversed through the labyrinth-like corners of the dark infernal cave, running into plenty of dead ends and letting out scowls of frustration every time we hit one of them.

"Were you stuck in here for as long as I was, Jesse?" I asked the enraged brunette as he stomped through all the passageways that were left.

"Just be quiet for one second, Petra!" Jesse snapped as he kept tramping aimlessly around the cave. Although I know he didn't really mean it, his delivery sounded so mean-spirited that I didn't have anything to say back to him. But I couldn't really blame him considering I did the opposite of what he told me earlier, and he ran into so many dead ends here.

"Okay then..." I squeaked as I hid myself in the deepest depths of Jesse's shirt pocket.

After many minutes of rage, bitterness and fury, Jesse and I finally found ourselves at the Nether Portal, which just sat there making swirls in the purple void it led to as it made a bunch of swooshing noises.

"Oh, finally!" Jesse exclaimed as I clambered out of his pouch to see the Nether Portal in all it's glory.

"Took us long enough to find this damn thing again..." I muttered as I stared at the black rectangular gate with Jesse, it's purple entrance begging us to walk through it... My chocolate brown eyes met with Jesse's giant emerald green orbs as he asked me "Well, Petra... Now or never?"

"Yep. Now or never." I said with a smile as I looked back at the portal.

"Then here goes nothing..." Jesse said as he leaned down on his tippy-top toes and opened his hands up wide... Then he ran and jumped right through the portal, our senses of gravity being eliminated as soon as we entered the purple void that would lead us back to our home!

"Whoa..." I muttered as I started to feel myself slip right out of Jesse's pocket. "Whoa, wait... Wh-Wh-Wh-Wh-Whoa! Jesse!" I reached my small hand out to my large boyfriend as he floated around the void too. He swam towards my tiny floating form and caught me in his big hand.

"I've got you, Petra!" Jesse exclaimed as he clenched his hand into a fist, being absolutely careful not to squeeze me like a grape.

"Thank you, Jesse..." I gasped as I was brought up to his face.

"Hold on, Petra! We're coming out!" Jesse shouted. We both closed our eyes as we came closer to the exit in front of us.

* * *

Jesse came careening out of the Nether Portal and I flew clean out of his hand, screaming as I fell to the stone brick floor with my arms held out wide and slid across it, screeching to a stop along with my yelling when I reached the stairs. I turned over and plopped my back on the ground, staring up at the roof in front of my vision as I laid down.

"Ha ha..." I laughed as I spread out my arms and legs like a starfish on the ocean floor. "That was a lot of fun!" I bought my body parts in and out as if I was making a snow angel, but then Jesse walked up and stared down at me, his face screwed up as he repeatedly stamped his right foot.

"He he..." I giggled anxiously, getting back up and turning my smile into a face of regret and nervousness as I gazed up at my angry boyfriend. "Yeah... I'm going to hell for my reasoning, aren't I?"


	20. Taken Away By A Familiar Face

**_Chapter 20: Taken Away By A Familiar Face_**

* * *

 **A/N: Just to let you know, this is going to be the only chapter in the story that isn't** ** _just_** **in Petra's POV. So make sure to expect the odd POV swap at some points.**

* * *

 **Petra's POV**

* * *

As I stood where I was on the plushy red blanket that rest on my ginormous queen-sized bed, the huge Jesse stared at me with anger present in his eyes.

"Petra, I am very disappointed in you..." He said as he started to slowly pace around the bed. "I told you to stay in the surf shop where you should've been! Instead, you came to the Nether with me and did the opposite of what I said!"

"But Jesse!" I whined as I watched the giant brunette walk back and forth around my bed. "You don't understand! I felt completely recovered this morning! And if I say I'm fine, I'm fine! You can't use _"Oh, you can't come to the Nether with me because you just got better"_ as a excuse for me not to come with you!" I flapped my arms about like a clueless monkey as I mimicked Jesse's overprotective attitude.

"That's the point though!" Jesse exclaimed as he brought both of his hands up and down. "Do you see me venturing into a cave after I've just recovered from a case of flu? No, you don't! Because for all I know, I could end up with an itchy rash for two or three days tomorrow! And how would I be able to defend myself if I've got a handicap like that? You ever thought about something like that? Hmmm?" Jesse brought his scrunched face up close to my small body, which made me _extremely_ hesitant to respond to my angry boyfriend's questions as I backed up.

"Jesse, I..." I found myself spluttering as I sat down and began to shake. "I..." I was at a loss for words because of how much pressure Jesse's endless irate torrent of unanswered questions was putting on my body. I let out a sigh to steady myself as I finally gave Jesse my response. "I didn't want to stay in the surf shop with Nell because waiting there would've been so damn boring... and I didn't really want to apologise to her for something that was _my_ fault. And what if you died in the Nether without me?"

"That's your reasoning?!" Jesse asked me with a combined tone of curiosity and shock. "Petra, if there's one thing you should've learned damn well after all these years, it's that I can now hold my own just as well as you can! You don't have to worry about me every single chance you get! Regardless of wherever I'm your boyfriend or not, you have to understand that I'll be fine when I say I'll be fine!" I could feel my heart breaking in two as Jesse yelled really aggressively at me. A sob rose across my throat as a tear started to pour out of my left eye.

We both heard someone knocking on the big wooden door next to us and we both diverted our attention to the long, protracted vertical gate. "Is something wrong, Jesse? You sound very... angry." A high-pitched childish voice asked from behind the door.

"Not now, Radar." Jesse replied, completely calmed down as if nothing happened.

"No no boss, I insist. Let me in." Radar begged.

"Alright..." Jesse sighed as he got up from his spot and opened the door for the cute and somewhat geeky intern.

"Oh, thank you, Jesse!" Radar exclaimed as he jumped up and wrapped his arms around Jesse's torso, embracing him in an attack hug. The adorable assistant couldn't help but smile as he kept his arms wrapped my boyfriend's chest. As Radar let go of Jesse, he noticed that I was sitting down on the giant bed and not walking around in my mini-house. His smile of joy turned into a frown of concern. "Is Petra in trouble?" Radar asked as he faced Jesse while pointing his thumb at me.

"Yes, Radar. A _lot_ of trouble." Jesse stated, taking his hands off Radar's shoulders.

"Oh dear..." Radar fretted as the timid intern looked back at me. "What did she do?"

"I caught her travelling through the Nether when I told her to stay in Nell's surf shop." Jesse answered Radar's question like it was common knowledge.

"Why would you do that?" Radar asked back while fiddling with his fingers, trying his best to sound like he had nothing to do with this. "You know that surf shops aren't Petra's thing at all."

"Yeah, I know." Jesse replied as he placed a hand on the back of his head. "But since Petra just recovered from being sick yesterday, I thought it would be best for her to stay away from any potential danger today, so I sent her over to Nell's shop. Granted, it didn't seem the kind of place she would be interested in at all but I had to drop her off somewhere for a few hours."

"You're damn right I wasn't interested in Nell's surf shop at all!" I butted in, which caused Radar and Jesse to turn their heads to me. "Not to offend that surfer girl one bit, but I would've been so freaking bored in there waiting for you to come back! I'm just glad that my escape was too easy and Radar was kind enough to send me into the Nether with you!" Jesse's jaw dropped with shock, and Radar's face went pale as he heard me spit out our dirty little secret.

"Th-That's just silly! I th-I think that Petra's just been losing the plot today, Jesse!" Radar stuttered to Jesse as he stood up and gradually became shaky.

"You did what, Radar?!" Jesse shouted with consternation and trauma in his voice. The brunette put his hands back on Radar's shoulders, who was becoming so shaky to the point where he was now chattering his teeth in fear of how Jesse was going to punish him.

"It's not my fault, Jesse! Petra just wanted to... and I was just..." The poor intern was so scared that he couldn't even finish his sentences properly. "Okay, I admit it! I _did_ take Petra to the Nether! But I only did that for her because she _wanted_ to go there!" Radar then took off his glasses and wiped away the tears that were now streaming down his face. "I'm so sorry, boss!" Jesse's melancholic assistant cried. "I can't satisfy everyone with the choices I make! I'm such a screw-up! I'm useless! I can't do anything right! I don't know what I was thinking when I applied to be your intern!"

"Hey, Radar! Calm down!" Jesse exclaimed, grabbing Radar's arms with his hands. But the mournful intern wouldn't stop crying, for he was too sad to even think positive thoughts. Radar cried in Jesse's shoulder as he resumed his somber rant of him being meaningless.

"But, Jesse... I just let Petra go into the Nether when she should've stayed put at Nell's surf shop!" Radar sobbed as he continued to wipe his tears away.

"Radar?" Jesse called his intern's name in an attempt to make him stop trash talking himself.

"I'm such a bad person!" Radar kept crying as he looked down at the floor. "I'll gladly learn my lesson if you take something away from me for a short period of time! My cookie stash, my notepad and pen, my drawings of you and my friends, anything really!"

"Excuse me... Radar?" Jesse called his name again, but Radar just wouldn't stop dissing himself in his current state of sadness.

"I'm so sorry, Jesse! I won't do anything like that again!" The heartbroken intern weeped as he sniffled.

"RADAR!" Jesse shouted Radar's name at a loud enough volume so that no-one would come bursting into the room and that the mournful intern wouldn't cry even more than he already was.

"Yes, Jesse...?" Radar inquired as he sniffled and bought his crying to an end.

"Calm down. I'm not going to punish you." Jesse casually assured the melancholic intern, rubbing his hand across the sniffling brown child's cheek. "I mean, sure, there's a chance that Petra could've gotten herself killed fighting monsters that are ten times her size in the Nether, but I'm not going to punish you this time. Everyone makes mistakes."

"So... you're not going to send me to bed without my supper or confiscate my cookies?" Radar blubbered as he stared up at Jesse's face.

"No, Radar. I'm just letting you off with a warning for now." Jesse proclaimed as Radar put his glasses back on. "If you do something like that again, that's when you'll be punished."

"Okay, Jesse... I got it." Radar said as he wrapped his arms around Jesse's torso and sunk his face into his chest. "Again, I'm really, really sorry about this..."

"It's fine, Radar. I forgive you." Jesse replied, patting Radar on his forehead. "As long as you don't do anything like that again in the future, you're off the hook."

Radar emerged his face from Jesse's chest and released his grip on the brunette with a smile and tears of joy on his face. "Thank you." He complimented as he wiped his tears away one last time. "Well... I'm gonna leave you two lovebirds to it." Radar waved "goodbye" at us as he walked out of my room and closed the door.

* * *

That night, Jesse tucked me in as I laid on my bed, his big fingers placing my comfy red blanket over my tired body. I let out a yawn as my head sank into the pillow behind me.

"So aside from disobeying me, have you had a good day, Petra?" Jesse asked me as I started getting a desire to close my eyes.

"You bet I have..." I yawned, smiling at the cute head that was peeking over the hole where my roof should be. "I'm sorry I couldn't stay true to your words, but hey, I'm glad we forgave each other pretty quickly..."

"Me too, my little sweetheart..." Jesse laughed as he slouched his head down even further to plant a warm goodnight kiss on my brow. I felt my cheeks blush a bright red when he smooched my forehead. "Well, good night, Petra. I've got a lot of fun ideas in mind for tomorrow." The giant brunette moved his head out of the hole and started to place the roof back where it was...

"Good night, Jesse..." I yawned into my hand. "Sleep tight... Don't let the silverfish bite." I cracked, which caused my colossal boyfriend to laugh lightly at my clowning quip. The roof was put right back where it was, and I flicked the light switch beside me, turning the redstone lamp off and making the room almost entirely pitch black. I closed my eyes and smacked my lips, giving my body the pleasure of falling asleep as my brain gladly turned itself off and drifted off to my dream world.

* * *

 **?'s POV**

* * *

"Ugh! Come on Aiden, we've been walking through this forest for hours now!" I heard Gill exclaim behind me, walking alongside Maya, who was becoming equally as tired as the bearded man, carrying her tired legs through the grass as we walked along the constant stream of long trees. I however, refused to give up after coming so far, regardless of how heavy _my_ limbs were becoming after what felt like hours of walking.

"Walking through this forest at night isn't exactly the best idea you've ever had, y'know Aiden?" Maya asked me as she panted. "What if some zombies come out and try to eat our brains? Or a skeleton shoots us in the knee with an arrow?"

"Just quit your whining and stay close to me!" I barked at Gill and Maya. The three of us kept strutting through the forest as our legs got more and more heavier by the minute... Then finally, when we came across a wooden bridge, we all saw vibrant, protracted rainbow-coloured lights shine bright in the sky from a distance. "Beacontown..." I muttered as I was struggling to walk any further myself. "We've found it, guys!" I screamed at the top of my lungs in uncontrollable excitement.

"Jeez Aiden, don't scare us like that!" Gill exclaimed, wrapping his arms tightly around Maya's neck.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?" I insisted as I ran over the bridge to the giant red gates like lightning. "Last one there's a rotten slimeball!" Gill and Maya dragged each other's legs across the wooden platform and over to the big red doors where I was standing. The two companions let out sighs of exhaustion as they crouched down, placing their hands on their knees.

"So, guys... How do you suppose we get in?" I asked my friends, rubbing my fingers across my chin and gazing up at the colossal gates. "It's not like this is going to be a _"Bell out of order, please knock"_ scenario... and I'm absolutely certain that Jesse the treehouse hugger isn't gonna approve of us showing up here uninvited. Empty your pockets. What do you have? I have a sword, flint and steel, a bow, some arrows... and that's pretty much it." I ended my clarification of what I had with a shrug.

Gill and Maya ran their hands through their pockets and pulled out the items they had on them, presenting their hand-made tools to me. I started with Gill first who was holding... "I have a lead..." Gill claimed, showing off his elastic rope to me. "Will this get us in there?" The bearded man just stared at me with widened puppy eyes.

"Ugh... No..." I frowned, slapping the lead out of Gill's hands and wiping that exaggerated smile clean off his face. "Just how brain dead are you, Gill? Even a dead pig could be more useful than you!" I turned to Maya who was about to present _her_ belongings to me.

"Have you got any bright ideas, Maya?" I asked the brown-haired girl. She bestowed a block of TNT in front of my eyes.

"I have this block of TNT..." Maya said as she handed the explosive block to me. "I don't know if it'll come in handy that much, but hey, it is what it is."

"Maya, you're a genius!" I exclaimed as I jumped up in the air. "With your TNT, and my flint and steel, we can blow a hole in the gates and consider ourselves welcome!" I walked over to the gates with the block of dynamite in my possession, placing the cube-shaped explosive in the centre of the long red doors. I took the flint and steel out of my pocket, crossed the two together like fire and ice to ignite the flame, and threw it on top of the TNT. The white flashing and hissing sounds that followed were blatant signs for us to get as far away from the dynamite as possible.

"Take cover!" I yelled, dragging Maya and Gill away from the TNT with me. All three of us ducked and put our fingers in our ears as we braced for the Big Bang. " _'Cause I'm T.N.T!_ " I sang as the cube of dynamite blew up behind us with a big **_KABOOM!_** and made a hole in the gates separating us from Beacontown. We stood up and gazed back at the damage the explosive had done... A circular hole that blasted the lower centre part of the long gates to hell...

"Well, looks like we're invited!" I proudly proclaimed as me and my pals walked through the gaping hole that we made.

* * *

We walked around the empty, quiet streets of Beacontown as the sky continued to remain pitch black, the white moon illuminating from far above us.

"So what's the plan, Aiden?" Gill asked me, poking my shoulder. "Are you just making this up as you go along?"

"That's completely classified, for your information!" I responded, swatting Gill's hand away from my shoulder. We were about to have another fight, but our potential tirade was bought to an immediate stop when we heard someone snoring up in a big jellyfish-like house, which was spewing water out of the hole I assumed was it's... mouth?

"Hey, it's that fat beardy guy again, isn't it?" Maya rhetorically asked as she looked up the house beside me.

"Who? Me?" Gill asked back, pointing at myself.

"No, not you, you pork brain! Ivor!" I snapped at Gill. "Let's see what the old alchemist's been doing in his spare time... Wait here, guys..." As I told Gill and Maya to stay put where they were, I climbed up the ladder to Ivor's house. I flicked the lever beside me to open the iron door. The effect was instantaneous, and the titanium door swung open with a loud creaking sound! "Crap!" I thought to myself, but Ivor didn't wake up from how loud the door was. Instead, I just saw him yawn and toss and turn in his sleep. "Phew..." I ran my hand across the brow as I let out a sigh of relief. "All clear for the most part, guys. Just try not to make a sound..." I whispered at Gill and Maya, who were both watching me from below.

"Okay, Aiden..." Maya murmured, giving me the thumbs up. She then climbed up the ladder herself, with Gill following right behind her. I sneaked into Ivor's house and laid against a wall as I waited for my accompanies to group up with me.

Maya and Gill waltzed in Ivor's house, positioned themselves on the opposite side of the wall and looked over to where was I standing. "Gee, it sure is dark in here... Can we turn on the lights?" Gill asked at a reasonably low volume as he reached for the light switch.

"No, Gill!" Me and Maya replied, the latter forcing Gill's arm away from the light switch beside him. "Do you _want_ to wake Ivor up and blow our cover?" I continued as I screwed up my face.

"Uhh... No, I don't..." Gill muttered as he finally regained control of his hands.

"Then don't touch anything..." I whispered, nailing that response in his head as hard as I could. Me, Maya and Gill looked over to the table that was positioned against the opposite side of Ivor's bed. On the table, there were three brewing stands, all surrounded by what we considered to be unorthodox ingredients for potions. Beetroot soup, chorus fruit, golden apples, mushroom stew, spider eyes... The uncanny list just wouldn't stop...

"What has this weirdo been doing with his life this time?!" I squeaked as I held the bizarre ingredients in my hands. We then diverted our attention to Ivor, who was snoring noisily in his sleep, tossing and turning with... a diary in his hand?

"I think that book might have the answers to our questions..." Maya suggested, pointing at the brownish book that was being held in Ivor's hand. "Go get it, Aiden..."

I snuck up to Ivor, taking tiny baby steps as the tired necromancer snorted in his sleep. I stopped sneaking for a second when I heard Ivor snore really noisily, but continued when I found out he wasn't ready to wake up just yet. As I crouched down onto my knees and gazed at the diary that was in Ivor's possession, I reached for the book with my hand...

Ivor tossed to the left with a yawn just before I could snatch the diary away from him! "Oh, come on... Don't be stubborn, you fat stupid alchemist..." I grunted as I stood up and tried reaching for the diary again. Ivor kept snoring as loud as he could while I kept trying to take the book out of his hands and into _my_ possession.

"Come on Aiden, please don't screw this up..." I could hear Maya whispering behind me as I struggled to reach for Ivor's diary. Eventually, I was able to put my hand around the book and without much effort, I yanked it clean out of Ivor's hands. As soon as I took the diary from him however, the sleeping alchemist tossed to the right with a yawn! I thought for sure he was going to wake up, but instead, he just smacked his lips and jiggled his body.

"Mmmm... Harper." Ivor muttered to himself, his eyes still closed from trapped in his dream world.

"Okay, you've got the book! Now let's get the hell outta here before he wakes up!" Maya whispered to me, signalling that we had to make our escape as fast as possible. We all clambered ourselves out of Ivor's house and scrambled down the ladder as fast as we could. While we were doing all this, I was holding onto the diary at all times. As long as it contained valuable information about the bearded weirdo was doing this time, I didn't want to lose it.

* * *

We all sat down in front of the Order Hall as beads of sweat started to drip down our foreheads from all that tension earlier. I could see Gill and Maya nudging over beside me as I opened the book...

"Come on Aiden, read what it says!" Gill exclaimed, shaking his clenched fists like a madman.

"Calm down, Gill! I'll get to it! What do you think I am, an audiobook reader?" I replied, taking my eyes off the pages and over to Gill. Diverting my attention back to the book, I turned the first page and proceeded to read the following...

 ** _~ Experiment #121: Bringing Petra Back to Her Normal Size ~_**

 ** _Day One: Jesse and Petra came over to visit me this morning. As I was greeting Jesse, I noticed that his fiery girlfriend, Petra, had gotten so tiny! It turned out that last night, she drunk a lot of my shrinking potions that I brought to their party by accident! Oops! The huge brunette and ant-sized redhead requested me to make an antidote, but since I tried to make that in the past only to fail miserably over and over again, I told them that finding the right combination of ingredients would take me days or even months... But at the very least, I was kind enough to supply Petra with plenty of building blocks that were just her size. I'm not such a bad guy, aren't I?_**

 ** _Day Two: I immediately got to work on making that antidote the following morning. I had plenty of test subjects that I shrunk down rather recently so doing this sort of thing might be feasible for me. I tried combining mushroom stew and spider eyes, but that didn't work. Pumpkin pie and ghast tears? That didn't work either. Eventually, I started to run out of ingredients so I considered this day a failure. It doesn't matter though. I'll get there for them soon._**

 ** _Day Three: This time, I tried putting ghast tears and blaze rods together... But to my dismay, that was a bust too! So I started going for the more ridiculous combinations like... emeralds and quills! It may have sounded very unlikely, but I had to have it a shot! And just like I expected, it didn't work... And since I was starting to run out of ingredients AGAIN, I considered today another failure._**

 ** _Day Four: I spent the first half of this day searching for ingredients that seemed uncanny but feasible. After searching around a lot of abandoned caves, I found coal, iron, gold, redstone and diamonds. Maybe one of these five minerals could be a vital part of that perfect combination I'm looking for... My attempted amalgamations for today consisted of coal and spider eyes, iron and beetroot soup, gold and golden apples (mainly just for how stupid and obvious that sounds), redstone and chorus fruit, and diamonds and rabbit stew. And unfortunately, none of these worked! No wonder I abandoned my shrinking project in the first place..._**

 ** _Day Five: I tried going back to the uncanny combinations today... The combos that I tried consisted of cocoa beans and red mushrooms, bone meal and milk, and gold nuggets and wheat. To my absolute frustration, none of these bought my test subjects back to normal! At this point, I just wanted to give up, but since Jesse and Petra were waiting for me to provide them with that antidote they needed so badly, I knew I couldn't just bail out now..._**

 ** _Day Six: This night, after almost a full week of nothing but failure and disappointment, I finally managed to find a combination that actually worked! Eggs, spider eyes and enchanted golden apples! By the thinnest strands on Notch's beard, I finally found it! But unfortunately, since everyone is probably in bed right now, I won't be able to give Jesse and Petra the antidote straight away. And assuming that Petra wakes up at 7am the following morning, she'll only have sixteen hours to drink the antidote before she stays shrunk forever... So if anyone tries to steal my hard work, I'm keeping it hidden in a place where they will never find it... And so far, this concludes my experiment to bringing Petra back to her normal size._**

I closed the book and panted for breath as I stood up. "Man, that was a mouthful..." I said. "Okay, change of plan, guys. We are going to kidnap Petra and make our slave."

"Ooh! Capturing the redhead when she could hardly defend herself as a tiny person! I like it!" Maya said as she rubbed her hands.

"Are you sure that this is a feasible idea, Aiden?" Gill asked me. "I mean, she's tiny now, so what would we do if one of us accidentally trod on her?"

"Hey, it'll serve Petra right for kicking my heart in the ass all these years ago." I answered.

"Hmmm... Good point." Gill replied. And with that, the three of us barged right into the Order Hall.

* * *

The main hall was pretty much deserted, as I expected it to be at this time of day. The only things that kept this room crowded were the stolen treasures that Jesse and his gal pals collected on their "adventures" together. We all walked up the staircase and over to the door on our right. We could guess that this is where Petra would be sleeping since we could hear the sounds of everyone snoring.

"Okay, gang... Remember, be as quiet as a mouse." I whispered as I slowly opened the wooden door.

"Hehe! It's funny because Petra's probably as tall as a mouse at this point!" Gill laughed.

"Shut up!" I hissed as I punched Gill in his noggin, causing him to flinch and rub his hand against where I punched him.

We tip-toed down the barren, dark, empty corridor, the sounds of Jesse and his friends snoring making us tense the further we got. Our eyeballs thoroughly scanned the doors, all of which had different coloured signs that corresponded with everyone's positions in the New Order of the Stone... I mean, Losers! Dark blue for Jesse, red for Olivia, green for Axel, white for Lukas, a book and a quill for Radar...? We stopped at the wooden door that had a cyan coloured sign on it.

"This must be Petra's room..." I whispered, slowly opening the wooden door and trying very hard not to wake anyone up. Upon opening the protracted vertical gate, we were greeted to a queen-sized bed that was placed in the centre of a quartz floor alongside walls made of oak wood planks. On the left to this queen-sized bed was a small wooden house where the sounds of high-pitched snoring were coming from.

"I think we've hit the jackpot right away, guys..." I whispered as I sneaked over to the tiny house, tearing off the roof slowly but surely. And sure enough, there she was, snoring in her sleep on a small bed as her body was being kept warm by a red blanket.

"Haha! We've found her!" I heard Maya shriek as quiet as she could without getting too excited about the fact that we found Petra right away.

"Shhh... The girl is sleeping..." I sneered sarcastically. With no hesitation at all, I reached my hand into the house and grabbed Petra, taking her and the tiny blanket, and putting both of them in my trouser pocket!

"We got what we came for!" I exclaimed with joy in my voice as I felt the tiny redhead and her blanket jiggling around in my pouch. "Come on guys, let's bail before everyone wakes up!" And with that, we started to run away at a reasonable pace back to our house, being careful to not wake anyone up by being too loud. We were able to run as fast as we wanted as soon as we got out of the Order Hall...

* * *

 **Jesse's POV**

* * *

As the first hint of sunlight entered my window, I woke up with a yawn and looked out the glass window to see a lot of monsters burning to death as they stayed exposed in direct daylight. How did they get in here? The gates are normally closed during the night. When all the mobs died from the sunlight, I saw that there was a hole in the centre of the big red gates.

"Damn vandals..." I sighed to myself as I slipped out of my pyjamas and put on my usual attire. Blue jeans, white sleeveless shirt, red suspenders and black shoes. I made my bed and walked out of my room into Petra's pad, excited to take my tiny girlfriend to all the places I wanted her to see today.

"Good morning, Petra! Are you ready to get out for a walk with your giant boyfriend?" I hollered as I marched into Petra's room. But then I noticed the roof of Petra's mini-house was completely torn off... I don't remember leaving it like that last night. I put it back where it was so that Petra could go to sleep more easily. "That's strange..." I walked over to the small house and peeked over the big hole where the roof should be to see that Petra and her blanket were gone! "Petra?! Where did you go?!" I frantically ran my hands around her bedroom to search for the tiny redhead. I even picked up the bed to see if she was hiding underneath it. But nope. No Petra.

"Petra!" I screamed her name as I continued to look around for her, not that I would have any luck trying to find her since she was such a tiny target, but still! "Petra, where are you?!"

"Jesse? What's wrong?" I heard Lukas ask me. I turned around to see him, Axel, Olivia and Radar standing outside Petra's room, all of whom were looking at me really concerned.

"Oh! Hey, guys!" I laughed with nervousness as I placed a hand on the back of my head. "Nothing's wrong with me! I'm totally fine!"

"Jesse..." Lukas said my name as he narrowed his ocean blue eyes at me.

I sighed in defeat as I looked down at the ground. "Look, guys..." I started. "I... have a confession to make. I haven't been... completely honest with you about the Petra thing..."

"You see? I told you he was hiding something from us!" Lukas told the others.

"Petra... She drank a lot of Ivor's shrinking potions during that party we had a week ago..." I continued, sighing as I looked back up at the crowd of four people. "She didn't want you to know that she shrunk down to the size of my shoe... I had to keep quiet about it for her sake... I'm really sorry..."

"Oh, none taken, Jesse!" Radar assured me. "In fact... I have a confession to make as well. I knew that Petra had become small too! I saw her standing there in the main hall. We both agreed to keep her secret safe with me and..."

"Yeah, that's all good, Radar! Glad you could share your side of the story!" I interrupted my intern, trying to sound as blissfully unaware as I could.

"You didn't even let me finish..." Radar squeaked.

"So you're saying that when I broke into Petra's room, took off her clothes and tasted her that night... she wasn't actually an action figure?!" Axel exclaimed as his face went pale.

"No, she wasn't... But yeah, Petra? She's just gone now." I said, pointing to the empty bed with no blanket. "What happened to her?"

"Maybe she sneaked out and went off into the great unknown." Olivia suggested, peeking over the hole with me, Lukas, Axel and Radar.

"No." I denied, shaking my head. "If she really did sneak out and go into the great unknown, she probably would've left her blanket on the ground or something. The blanket isn't even here. So I'm going to have to assume that someone broke in here and..." My face went white as I struggled to get that last words out.

"Kidnapped her?!" Radar exclaimed, completing my sentence.

"Please no..." Lukas gasped. "By who?!"

"I don't know..." I muttered as I scanned Petra's actual bedroom. "I don't see any clues that could lead us to Petra's kidnapper... I guess we'd better let other people do the work for us as well..."

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Axel asked.

"We'll plaster posters of her all over Beacontown and any other locations we can think of." I answered the brute's question with a determined tone in my voice. "Lukas, do you have a lot of paper on you by any chance?"

"I sure do!" Lukas replied. "Just wait right here!" The blonde then ran out of the room, careening to the left. As we waited for Lukas to come back, I saw Radar take a peek in one of Petra's drawers. The brown intern held up a CD jewel case and showed it to us.

"Hey Jesse, what's this?" Radar asked. The cover had a chained half-naked man begging for his life on a dark background with the words "Beyond Burial" and "Feast of God" on the top and bottom respectively.

"Haha... You _really_ don't want to know what that is, Radar..." I laughed as I took the disturbing CD out of his hand and back where he found it.

"Oh come on, Jesse! You should know that I'm a very open-minded guy when it comes to music!" Radar insisted as I closed the drawer.

"We'll listen to that another time, Radar. But not right now." I responded, secretly knowing damn well that I didn't want to expose Radar to the aggressive riffs and growling vocals of metal _ever_. If he listened to that, he'd probably end up developing the same music taste as Petra, and I sure as hell didn't want another metalhead in my group of friends because one is good enough.

"I'm back, guys!" Lukas exclaimed as he came back with a ton of blank paper in his hands and plopped it all onto Petra's queen-sized bed.

"That's perfect, Lukas!" I complimented the blonde as he closed his sky blue eyes and gave me a cheekish smile. "Radar, you're in charge of making the posters." I pat the brown intern on the back as I gave him this responsibility.

"Okay, Jesse! I promise I'll make them as eye-catching as possible!" Radar said, placing the blank pieces of paper on a nearby table and taking out his pen.

"But Jesse, we don't have any pictures of Petra. How are people supposed to know what she looks like if we don't include a picture of her?" Axel asked while waving his big arms around.

"Oh yeah, I forgot about that..." I immediately realised. Then it came to me. "The portraits! We could cut Petra's face out of our portraits and put that on the posters!"

"And I have even more pictures of us!" Lukas added, taking them out of his pockets. "We can cut Petra's face out of those and put them on the posters!"

"I like the way you think, Lukas!" Olivia responded with a smile and playful nudge.

* * *

By the time Radar sunk down in his chair from finishing all of those posters in half an hour, we all gathered round the table to see what his eye-catching works of art looked like. Radar's posters obviously had a white background to them, but in the centre of the posters was a picture of Petra's face, accompanied by the big red letters at the top and bottom saying "Have you seen this girl?" and "If you have, please take her back to Beacontown and inform Jesse."

"You've done it again, Radar! I'm so proud of you!" I complimented the tired intern as I nuzzled my fists on his shoulders. I gazed up at Petra's portrait of us, which had her face cut out entirely. I knew she was going to be upset when she found out about this, but I think for our sake, cutting her face out of all our pictures that had her in them would actually be for a good cause. "Come on, let's get these plastered all over Beacontown!" We all took our fair share of posters and ran out of the Order Hall, only to nearly knock into Ivor, who was running over to us.

"Jesse!" Ivor exclaimed with some green potion in his hands.

"Ivor!" I called back as we all screeched to a stop. "You think you can watch where you're going?"

"Oh, hehe... Sorry..." Ivor apologised, shifting his view away and back to us. "I just wanted to tell you that I've finally made the antidote that Petra needs! Just a little drink of this during breakfast, lunch, tea or supper and she'll be back to her normal size in seconds flat!"

"Yeah, about that..." I hesitated, my voice trembling. "Petra's gone..."

"Gone?!" Ivor exclaimed. "She's not here when she desperately needs to drink her remedy?! Where has she gone?!"

"We suspect that she's been kidnapped." Lukas answered for me.

"So we've decided to plaster posters of her all over Beacontown!" Radar added in with Lukas.

"Yes yes, but who exactly kidnapped her?" Ivor asked us back.

"We don't know. It could've been anybody." Axel said.

"Well, it obviously couldn't have been any of us..." Olivia pondered.

"We've got to find that missing girl fast!" Ivor cut in with a sigh, checking the clock on his wrist. "If we don't make her drink the antidote within fifteen hours, she'll be stuck a shrinkee forever!"

"Fifteen hours?!" I gasped, unable to believe what Ivor was telling me. "Ivor, you never said anything about a time limit!"

"I... forgot. I'm sorry, Jesse." Ivor replied. "I suspect that if Petra drank the shrinking potions at 11pm during the party, that means that upon downsizing, she would have 168 hours, or a week if you want to be simple about it, to get back to her normal size. So if all my calculations are correct, her time is going to run out on 11pm this night. We have to find her!"

"Well, care to join us?" I requested with a smile.

"Yeah yeah whatever, just make sure you'll find her before it's too late." Ivor accepted my offer as he positioned himself behind all of us.

"Okay guys, let's get these posters up quicker than you can say... _Warrior Whip_!" I hollered, which caused all of us to scatter around Beacontown while shouting what I just said, plastering missing posters of Petra all over the place. Although no-one will have probably seen her since she's such a tiny target, it's still worth a shot if you ask me. And hopefully, we could extend this search party to the forest and nearby villages as well...


	21. On the Run

**_Chapter 21: On the Run_**

* * *

 _I_ _was doing a great job at holding my own against the never-ending swarm of monsters that came out at night. It didn't matter whether the world decided to throw zombies, skeletons, creepers or endermen at me, because I was just too strong for them._

 _Another lumbering green-skinned zombie limped close to me. I quickly ran over to it with Miss Butter in my hand and slashed it across the chest, sending the clumsy monster flying back first onto the grass with a low groan and making it close it's eyes as it vanished from existence, leaving behind puffs of smoke with that unmistakeable_ **POOF!** _I loved to hear so much._

 _"Yeah!" I cheered as the smelly vomit-coloured creature disappeared. "Come on world, is that all you've got?! Give me a real fight!" And by some coincidence, as if the world itself was listening to my request, the earth started to shake violently as loud, booming footsteps came closer and closer to me. The powerful tremors that whatever was behind me was making knocked me off my feet and onto the blanket of grass._

 _When the brutal earthquakes stopped, an upside-down face came into my view as it just stayed there, laughing as if to mock me. I got back up on my feet and examined the giant being that was looming above me from bottom to top. This colossal character was wearing brown shoes, long black pants, a brown belt, green shirt, black jacket, and he was just crouching down on his knees, staring at me with his devious lime green eyes and evil grin._

 _"Aiden?!" I gasped as I found myself frozen in place. How did he get so big?! Did Ivor make growing potions too at some point?! The nefarious titan-sized person I wished to forget grabbed me in his hand, clenching the body part into a fist and bringing me up to his face._

 _"Aaaaaah! Let go of me! Can't breath! Crushing lungs!" The amount of pressure that Aiden was putting on me made me feel like he was squeezing me to death! I couldn't escape from his tight grasp even if I tried..._

 _"Long time no see, Petra..." The smug rascal greeted me, refusing to wipe that malicious smile off his face. I couldn't say anything, for Aiden's intimidating size and petrifying gaze made me too scared to even speak back to him. "Don't know how to greet an old face? Well... Down the hatch for you then!" The huge bully then opened his big, cavernous mouth and started bringing me close to it. Was he going to eat me?!_

 _"AIDEN, NO!" I screamed as he threw me into his damp, stinky mouth and onto his wet tongue. His gob then quickly shut itself, and Aiden swallowed me down in one gulp. I shrieked at the top of my lungs as I began my descent down Aiden's dark, protracted throat and into the green liquid that was his stomach acid._

 _I hit the sickening, burning fluids with a_ **SPLASH!** _and..._

* * *

"Aaaaah!" As quick as a flash, I opened my eyes and hit my head against whatever I was sleeping on as my body moved itself in fear of the nightmare that I just had. It felt too hard to be my soft, plushy pillow, so guessing from how painful the slam felt, I assumed it was some kind of table. "Ow!" I planted my hand where I hit the back of my head, rubbing the spot where I hurt myself. As I continued to rub my head and ease the pain, I realised I was being greeted back to reality by Aiden, who was making a deceitful face whilst staring at me, along with Gill and Maya who were on both sides of him.

"Who...? What...? Where... How...?" I gasped as I scanned the faces I thought I left behind in the past where they belonged.

"Good morning, Petra..." Aiden purred in a low, venomous voice, which caused my back to gradually become cold. Resuming my desire to scan my surroundings, I saw that I was sitting on a long, cold wooden spruce table, and the room that we were all in was made of oak wood for the lengthy walls and jungle wood for the protracted floor. The pillow that I was resting my head on last night had vanished, along with my bed entirely. The only thing that remained of my mostly pleasant slumber was my red blanket. Aiden kneeled down and brought his giant face closer to me. "Did you... sleep well?" He asked me with a voice of poison.

"Wh... Where am I?! Why are you here?! I thought I rid you from my mind for good, Aiden!" I replied back with panic and hysteria in my voice, throwing my blanket away from my body. Aiden's only response that could even qualify as an answer to my questions was his short fit of diabolical laughter. "Wait a minute..." I pondered, turning around and looking away from Aiden's evil sneering head. "I think I know what's happening! This is just a bad dream within a bad dream! If I close my eyes and count to three, I'll be back in my house in no time!" I covered my chocolate brown eyes with my hands, eliminating my vision as I also closed my eyelids as tight as I could. "One, two, three!" I chanted, making the break with my hands and opening my eyes again, only to have Aiden, Gill and Maya still staring at me. The scenery around me still hadn't changed either, which meant that...

"Petra, how much of a dumbass are you? This is not a dream!" Aiden laughed as he held his sides.

"So basically... You've... kidnapped me or whatever?" I gulped as my body started to shake uncontrollably.

"Mmmm... Pretty much, Pets." Aiden replied with a shrug. I almost cringed when Aiden called me _"Pets"_. I really, REALLY hated it when he called me that...

"But, Aiden... Why? Why would you do this?" I asked my wicked hulking kidnapper. "I was just having a calm, relaxing, beautiful sleep, so why did you have to suddenly kidnap me and take me here? Wherever this place is anyway..."

"Don't you get it, you hotheaded bimbo? I just wanted to serve you right for kicking my heart in the ass all those years ago." Aiden answered.

"So since Ivor accidentally made you the size of a lump of coal, we thought it would be fun to snatch you from your yucky circle of friends and make you our little pint-sized slave for the rest of your life." Maya added in with Aiden.

Well... When Aiden said I kicked his heart in the ass, he certainly wasn't lying...

* * *

 _I was only hanging out with Lukas and the Ocelots until Aiden proposed to be my boyfriend. I thought he wasn't exactly ready for a responsibility that big, but since I made a promise to myself not to upset anyone I was good friends with, I accepted the offer for his sake._

 _I had a pretty decent time with the guy while our relationship lasted. We went for hikes around the forest, I taught him how to defend himself against monsters, and I even crafted a diamond block for him. I can still remember every detail of that time he almost teared up when I gave it to him._

 _A week later, that's when Aiden started poking fun at Jesse and his friends, another group of companions I was glad to have the privilege of being in. The guy acted very rudely towards them, calling them "The Order of the Losers", starting fights, and taunting them about how they'd never win an EnderCon building competition in their lives, particularly with Reuben by their side. Needless to say, I didn't like how Aiden rubbed his blustering behaviour off on the rest of the Ocelots except Lukas one bit so... I dumped him._

* * *

"Fellow Blaze Rods, get me a chair." Aiden demanded to his comrades as he took off his black jacket and positioned his bottom where he wanted the chair to be. Maya obliged to Aiden's command, got him a wooden chair that was over in the right corner of the wall, and the threatening bully sat down on it when his equally devious girl put the stool in the place he wanted. He then proceeded to plant his legs on the table I was standing on with loud thumping noises and violent tremors which made me lose my balance.

"I don't know what you mean when you say I kicked your heart in the ass... Can you go into a bit more detail, please?" I asked Aiden rhetorically, getting back up. I actually did know what he meant when he said that, but considering me and him were now sworn enemies, I just wanted to fuck with him for the sake of it.

"Oh come on, you stupid airhead!" Aiden exclaimed as he began to take off his brown shoes, revealing his dark blackened socks to compliment his long black trousers. "Do you have no idea of what metaphors mean or what they even are?! You dumped me like I was your wooden pickaxe! I gave you a week of my life for nothing when I could've spent it playing with my real friends and not some backstabbing tomboyish tramp who dresses like a pirate all her life!"

"That was like seven years ago! I thought you got over it!" I retorted, taking offence to how Aiden described me as he threw one of his pitch black socks behind him, hitting Gill in the face just to unveil his giant hulking foot to my small form. "And besides, I thought you would've learned something from the five years you and your pals spent in prison for vandalising Sky City!"

"I don't care..." Aiden muttered back at me as he proceeded to take off his other sock and show off his complete pair of huge, stinky feet. "The fact that you threw away our perfectly good relationship still hasn't changed, especially since you started favouring the Order of the Losers instead of us, and now... it's time for you to pay the consequences..."

"And what is my punishment exactly...?" I inquired, really not wanting to know the answer deep down inside.

"You can start paying for what you did to me by licking every inch of my bare feet clean." Aiden stated, pointing at his sweaty left sole. At first, I thought he was having a laugh... I mean, truly he wasn't expecting me to really lick his feet clean, right?

"Ha ha... You must be kidding, aren't you?" I cracked, holding my nose as I stared at Aiden's colossal soles.

"No, you little nuisance. I am not kidding." Aiden barked back at me in a tone as sharp as daggers piercing through my chest. "I want you to lick... my feet... clean."

"But Aiden, they're not even that dirty!" I complained, looking up at my giant kidnapper's smug face. "It's not like you've been dragging your feet through a swamp of mud or anything! Hell, you're not even in a worthy position to be considered my master so why should I have to do it?!"

"If you don't do as I say, slave, I will let you take a trip inside my shoes and make sure that you'll be crushed like a bug." Aiden threatened me, screwing up his face.

"Okay, Aiden, fine. I will gladly do as you say..." I muttered sarcastically.

"Nuh na nah..." Aiden tutted, sinking the entire weight of his giant hand onto my body! I had to use my own hands, which were really small in comparison to his, to retaliate against Aiden's unspeakable titanic strength! "I don't do sarcasm, Petra... You better give me your most honest answer right now if you want to live any longer."

"Okay okay, I'll do it, just don't squash me please!" I shrieked as I was using up all my strength to prevent Aiden from crushing me with his bare hand.

"Good good." Aiden cooed, bringing his huge hand away from me at last. It was really nice and refreshing to get a breath of fresh air after nearly being crushed by my evil ex-boyfriend. "You may proceed, my tiny servant." He stated, sinking into the wooden chair and putting his gigantic feet out on the table even further.

"Oh boy, here we go..." I sighed to myself, walking reluctantly slow over to Aiden's right foot. I was not looking forward to seeing how revolting this big jerk's feet would taste... I planted my hands on his huge sole and ran my tongue across the meaty hunk of skin, leaving behind trails of my saliva as I licked his titanic foot clean.

"Eugh!" I found myself gagging, immediately taking my tongue off of Aiden's putrid foot. "Yuck!" I rubbed my hands against my possibly contaminated tongue to eliminate the horrid taste of Aiden's crusty feet. "Aiden, your feet taste like mouldy, sweaty, discarded cheese!"

"That's exactly what I wanted to hear from you, Pets." Aiden laughed manically at me. "Turns out you're not so tough when you're licking a giant's feet, huh? Remember, if you've missed even one spot by 8:45, you can say hello to your new role as my supper." My giant ex pat his belly as he said this. I gulped and started sweating and shivering when I heard him say that he was going to eat me for real. I certainly didn't want my bad dream to become a reality if I screwed up my assignment.

* * *

By the time I licked about half of Aiden's disgusting right foot clean, I already felt like stopping just to throw up... I just couldn't do it. Aiden's feet tasted like what would happen if Axel put squids, steak, rotten flesh and spider eyes into a blender! The overall taste was just too sweaty and meaty for me to handle!

"Eugh..." I groaned, holding my hands against my mouth. I really did feel like I was going to throw up on the spot. "I can't do it... It's too much... Please, Aiden... Give me a break or something..."

"A break?!" Aiden shouted, taking his feet off the table. "Petra, as my newfound tiny servant, you're not allowed to stop for anything! I don't care if you want to stop just to suck your thumb like a baby! No breaks allowed!"

"You know Aiden, she could actually use a break right now..." Gill added in.

"What?!" Aiden snapped back at Gill, who was resting against the wall. Aiden stomped over to him with an annoyed expression on his screwed-up face. "What did you say, Gill?!"

"I'm just saying, maybe you could be nice enough to give Petra a teensy, weensy little break?" Gill suggested, playing with his hands. "It's just a suggestio-"

"Silence!" Aiden yelled, interrupting Gill's speech and slapping him right on the cheek. "I don't want to listen to another one of your dumb, foolish and counterproductive ideas! How about you actually think before you friggin' speak, Gill?! If you actually did **that** for once, then you wouldn't be getting the short end of the stick all the time!" The aggressive leader of the Blaze Rods was panting with unspeakable amounts of burning rage. Gill placed his hand over the big red handprint that Aiden left behind on his cheek.

"Owwww..." Gill cried as a tear started to stream out of his eye and down the cheek that Aiden slapped. Don't get me wrong... For as much of a dick that Aiden is, I don't really think that he's a bad leader. But one of these days, the undoing of his position as first-in-command will be... yeah, him being a dick to his friends.

After Aiden let out a grunt that, to me, said "I hope you've learned something from this, you idiot", he came walking back to me, planting his bum on the wooden chair and putting his stinky feet back on the table I was standing on.

"Continue, my servant." Aiden instructed me, pointing at his smelly soles.

"No." I bluntly replied, crossing my arms and turning my back on my giant ex. "If you want your feet cleaned, then why don't you do it yourself, you lazy slimeball?"

"Petra Dakota Johnson, I will have you know that we were boyfriend and girlfriend for about a week..." Aiden hissed, closing his big face in on me. "And now that you're doomed to forever be my servant who will serve me big hand on big foot, you can't say No to any of my demands or be rude to me in any way, got it?"

" _You can't say No to any of my demands..."_ I mouthed Aiden's avalanche of tripe as I played with my gloved hand to imitate his overly large mouth spouting said tripe.

"I'm warning you, young girl!" Aiden yelled at me, his cheeks starting to glow red with fury.

"Yeah! You heard me!" I responded, pushing my face against Aiden's big, fiery brow. "I'm not cleaning your putrid feet! You can go do it yourself because A: I simply don't want to do it for you, and B: That seems like the most logical and quickest solution, no questions asked!"

Aiden scowled at my response and bought his feet off the table to raise his right hand as high as he could to the sky. I simply stared up at his looming, colossal palm as it just stayed there, hovering in the air next to Aiden's frustrated face. Judging from the angle and trajectory of where he put it, there was no doubt that he wanted to crush me like an helpless ant.

"Well, I'll teach you to speak back to your master, you puny midget!" Aiden shouted, bringing his hand down on the table as quick as an whizzing arrow being fired by a skeleton.

"Aaaaah!" After letting out a cry of fear, I dived to my right to avoid getting squashed by Aiden's huge hand. With a thunderous BOOM!, I was sent flying across the table by the "shockwaves" that Aiden's impact produced.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed as I stopped myself and started wobbling on the edge of the table. "Please don't fall, please don't..." I shrieked to myself as the ridiculous 70-foot height of the drop below me made me lose my balance out of fear.

"Nooooooo!" I screamed as I finally lost my footing and began my descent off the table and onto the floor of wooden planks. I shielded my eyes as the timbered surface came closer and closer, until I got an idea. It seemed stupid and illogical, but it was worth a shot if I wanted to survive.

As quick as I could, I slipped myself out of my blue tunic and grabbed onto the armholes, causing it to puff up like a parachute and decrease my rate of descent by a noticeable majority. I was able to stick a harmless landing as my long black boots swiftly touched the ground and I put my tunic back on again. Without taking any time out of my hands to think, I ran as fast as I could towards the hole in the wall that was right in front of me.

"Oh no, you don't!" Aiden shrilled, trying to swat me with his enormous hands but missing by what felt like a mile. I panted as I dashed over to the black tunnel-like hole and avoided Aiden's rampaging blows. I slid into the dark space just before Aiden could crush me under his gigantic palm.

"Hey Petra, you wench! Come out of there!" Aiden screamed, sticking his hand into the hole. I continued to run at the fastest speed my legs could manage to avoid getting grabbed by Aiden's rotten mitt. Once Aiden's hand went as far as it could into the hole, I stopped running and started to catch my breath, letting out sighs of relief as I watched Aiden's hand clamber around the hole for me and slip back out after a few attempts.

"Damn it! She's gone too deep into that hole!" I heard Aiden grumble as I saw his feet walk over to the right. "Guys, keep an eye out for Petra! A target as small as her could reappear anywhere! Gill, you stay in this room! Maya, you scan the living room! I'll search our bedrooms! Don't let that tiny redhead out of your sights no matter what you do!"

* * *

When I heard enough of Aiden's strategy, I continued to walk deeper into the hole, my boots thumping through the somewhat metallic surface of this seemingly endless tunnel.

"Ugh, why is it so friggin' dusty in here?!" I complained, shafting my gloved hand across my vision as I started to cough from the abnormal amount of dust that was plaguing this protracted passageway.

It seemed like this grubby, lengthy hole just didn't want to end because it felt like I was going all over the place. Up pseudo-staircases, into dead ends, grates that I couldn't squeeze through, and pretty much everywhere else other than forward.

"Just end already, you stupid hole..." I panted as my body started to give in from walking all over the place. I was starting to have second thoughts about hiding in here, and now, it felt like I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I couldn't go back because retracing my steps would be a long and overly complicated process, I was going into this hole completely blind so I was nowhere near psychic enough to figure out where the exit was... I just didn't know what to do at this point... I curled up into a ball and buried my face in my knees, sighing in defeat as I tried to clear my mind of every "solution" that was out of the question. I didn't even have Miss Butter with me too which was a massive problem. How was I supposed to defend myself like this? Well... Not that I was going to be able to defend myself against some gigantic bullies anyway...

"Well, what if she doesn't come back?" I heard a whiny feminine voice echo through the path in front of me.

"Maya...?" I assumed as I started to walk straight forward again.

"I told you, Maya, you're not allowed to leave this spot until one of us finds Petra!" I heard Aiden's voice bark back at Maya.

I turned left and saw that I was finally at the end of the hole at last. The things that were blocking my exit were Maya's long, protracted legs, her big feet and limbs covered up by her brown shoes and dark blue jeans respectively.

"But Aiden, it's been like fifteen minutes and she hasn't been anywhere to be seen!" Maya complained as I saw her shift her feet around. I should probably just book it when she's away from that hole and Aiden's gone...

"Do I have to inform you again, Maya?!" Aiden shouted. "Until one of us sees Petra crawling her way out of another hole, you cannot leave this spot! Understand?"

"Okay, fine Aiden, I understand! Just leave me alone!" Maya yelled back in response.

"Good girl." Aiden simply commented as I heard him walk away and close a door.

"What's the point?" Maya sighed, seeming to lay her back against the wall. "We're never gonna find her. This is just a waste of our time..." Maya started to take her back off the wall and limp away from the hole as her feet produced violent tremors and booming noises.

"Now's my chance!" I told myself as I ran out of the hole where Maya was standing. Looking to my right, I could see that there was a giant wooden door, which would hopefully lead outside of the Blaze Rods' house. With the intent of minimising as much noise as I could, I sneaked over to the door on my tippy toes, making sure not to firmly plant my boots on the floor. The last thing I wanted to do was to let the Blaze Rods catch me and make me go through the displeasure of licking Aiden's disgusting feet again.

The Blaze Rods' living room wasn't anything too special. Apart from the couch made out of stone slabs and a wooden desk next to Maya's current position, it was pretty barren. There wasn't even a picture of themselves on the wall or any chests for them to store their resources. It was probably one of the blandest living rooms I have ever seen in my life. Of course, I was one to talk since the living room in my mini-house back at the Order Hall was pretty generic too, but since that place wasn't going to be my primary shelter once I got back to normal size, I could really care less about it.

The hulking Maya sighed as she faced a wall to her left. She laid her face on the nearby desk, groaning out of what I guessed was pure frustration and boredom. Well, I can't exactly blame her. I'd be pretty bored and pissed off too if I was forced to keep an eye out for a tiny person who went hiding in a hole.

"Jesus Notch, Aiden..." Maya griped, taking her face off the desk. "I love having you as a friend but you can really be a pain in the ass someti-" The giant girl cut the end of her sentence short when she caught me sneaking towards the door. I simply froze in terror as Maya kneeled down and focused her ocean blue eyeballs on me.

"Oh crap..." I said to myself as my back turned cold and I started to shiver.

"Guys, I found her!" Maya hollered as she bought her hand up to the sky and sent it hurling down to the ground twice as fast as it came!

"DON'T KILL ME!" I shrieked as I barely avoided getting crushed into the floor by Maya's giant hand. A shockwave effect similar to the one that Aiden produced earlier sent me blazing across the ground, but luckily not further away from the door. I quickly clambered back up and ran for the small, thin rectangular hole under the door when I saw Maya raise her foot and position it under me!

"No use trying to run, little girl!" Maya taunted me, bringing her foot down. I screamed as I had no choice but to roll underneath the gap.

"BOOM!" Maya yelled as her big shoe hit the wooden floor with an earth-shaking stomp, in which the shockwave effect actually assisted me in boosting away from her this time.

* * *

Thanks to the impact of Maya stomping her shoe on the ground, I was sent whizzing under the gap and into a field of grass outside the Blaze Rods' house. I slowly got back up on my knees, brushing myself off as I let out sighs of relief. "Phew! One metre less and I would've been squashed like a pancake!"

I scanned my surroundings and the vast landscape that led to a blue sky to see if I could find anything that would help me make my escape. I heard rustling coming from my right so I decided to run over there and see what was making that noise. To my surprise, the rustling noises were being made by a brown rabbit. It wasn't that much taller than me compared to the Blaze Rods. The bunny was only about three times my size, which technically made it the smallest creature I've ever run into at this size, excluding the silverfish that me and Jesse met two days ago.

I walked over to the hare's furry leg and climbed up onto it's fuzzy back. The buck just stared at me, watching my small form mount him like I did with Lluna. Hopefully, it wouldn't mistake me for a carrot or anything.

"Come on boy, to Beacontown!" I informed the big rodent, whacking it's neck with both of my hands and holding onto it as soon as the rabbit started bouncing away from the Blaze Rods' house. Every jump the rabbit did made me feel like I was riding on one of those "scary" roller-coasters, which often relied on the tactic of scaring your passengers with big drops and ridiculous speeds to get some kind of reaction out of them. Even though I knew I would be okay by holding onto the hare's nape as hard as I could, I still couldn't help but get the feeling that I was going to fall off it at any moment. And I wasn't expecting this animal to actually know the way back to Beacontown from here... I was just merely making this plan up as I went along.

I heard the big wooden door get kicked open behind us, and I saw that Maya was there pointing at us, with Aiden and Gill by her sides! "There she is!" The naughty giantess exclaimed. "She's trying to ride away from us on that rabbit! Come on guys, let's go get her! Blaze Rods!"

"Blaze Rods!" Aiden and Gill chanted along with Maya as all three of them started to run after me and the bunny. They all proved themselves to be slightly faster than the rabbit I was riding on, which was actually a really big problem since they would most likely catch up to us at this rate! Not that I'd be better off trying to outrun the Blaze Rods on foot anyway...

"Come on Mr. Hopperson, they're gaining on us!" I shouted in one of the hare's long ears. "Faster!" I encouraged my animal of transportation by kicking it in the side. This caused the hare to speed up it's bounding and gradually leave the pursuing Blaze Rods in the dust.

"Whoa, how is she going so fast?!" I heard Gill blurt out behind us.

"That rabbit's one hell of a bouncer!" Aiden yelled as he panted. Hopefully, that guy and the others would run out of breath sooner or later. "Pick up the pace, you guys! Run faster!"

I shifted my attention from the Blaze Rods back to what was ahead of me and the rabbit. "But Aiden..." Maya chuffed. "I don't think we'll be able to catch up to her... My legs are starting to kill me..."

"Mine too..." Gill huffed.

"I don't care whether your legs or your arms are starting to give in, just catch that redhead!" Aiden snarled back at his comrades, which encouraged them to keep running, regardless of how tired they seemed.

"Run, rabbit, run!" I exclaimed to my giant hare, kicking it in the side again to make it accelerate. Instead, the animal just decided to rebel against me and send me flying right off it's back! What?! I don't get it! What did I do to upset it that much?! All I was trying to do was give it a little encouragement!

"Aaaaaah!" I screamed as I flung my arms and legs through the air like a ragdoll. I made a hard landing on the grass, tumbling through the long, green blades and falling into a rushing current of water with a splash! I swam back up as soon as I landed in the tide, gasping for air as I watched the rabbit hop over to the edge and stand there as if to mock me.

"You are truly despicable, you know that?" I rhetorically asked the smug bunny as I got swept away by the current. The Blaze Rods then walked over to the edge as well. Gill crouched down on his knees and pointed to my helpless, floating form sailing away in the water.

"There she is! She landed in that river!" Gill exclaimed. "Sleeves up, Blaze Rods!" Gill and the Blaze Rods then proceeded to roll up their jacket sleeves and follow me around the river, kneeling down and dipping their giant hands in the water when they got close to me. I forced several breast strokes left and right to avoid getting grabbed by the Blaze Rods' intimidating claws.

After a few seconds of evading their mitts, the sounds of rushing water got even louder. And I could definitely see why! The Blaze Rods and I were nearing the danger of the scurrying falls! I dipped in and out of the water and darted in random directions to dodge the Blaze Rods' hands, but I had no idea how to find a safe way out of this! I couldn't go back because the current was too strong and the Blaze Rods were trying to pluck me out of the river, so it seemed like I was just going to have to take a chance and plunge myself down the falls.

As the Blaze Rods splashed their hands in the water behind me, I quickly swam forward on my own command to add some more speed to my movement, most of it coming from the current's unwanted "boost".

"Well, I guess I'm better off down here than back in that rut of a house with them!" I told myself as I lunged forward one final time, descending down the falls before the Blaze Rods could catch me!

"Kaaaaaaaaaah!" I screamed, flailing and swatting at the air like a child jumping off a diving board for the first time. This drop certainly looks longer than I thought it would be! Hopefully I wouldn't die from the impact or whatever! I closed my eyes and held my nose as I plummeted into the big pool of water with a loud splash!

My muffles upon landing in the lake got lost in bubbles. Although the rushing sounds of the falls were still taking up a majority of my hearing, I could still hear the Blaze Rods chatting to one another from up the mountain-sized hill.

"Did you see that, Maya? Man..." I heard Gill comment on my fall.

"There's no way a girl as tiny as her could've survived a fall like that." Maya added in.

"Yeah. My small ex is probably sleeping with the fishes right now." Aiden barked with a blunt tone. "Come on guys, let's head home. We should've known that pain in the ass more better than we actually did."

My lungs felt like they were starting to burn and give in at any moment now, so I kicked up and came gasping out of the water, spluttering and coughing for air! I let out of my nose and opened my eyes to see that the Blaze Rods were no longer up on the hill where they tried to catch me. Maybe they've given up...

I turned away from the gushing falls and swam over to the soft, dry patch of grass that was near me. I gasped and sighed as I plopped myself onto the dirt, relived that I was able to survive something as dangerous as that. I stood up and took off my bandana, which like the rest of my clothes and my fiery hair, was all wet from all that swimming and splashing in the water. I wrung my soggy bandana with both hands and wrapped it back around my drenched auburn hair. "Hopefully, Beacontown won't be too far away from here..." I said, carrying my exhausted legs and body through the tall grass.


	22. There Goes Our Friendship

**_Chapter 22: There Goes Our Friendship..._**

* * *

I panted as I carried my exhausted, heavy legs through the endless area of tall grass. The sun was starting to set now, and the sky was turning from a light blue to a darkened black. I needed to get back to Beacontown as fast as I could.

"Must... keep... moving..." I sighed, forcing tired breaths out of my mouth every so often. "I can't feel my legs... But I have to get back to Beacontown..." Eventually, I was able to scramble out of the long parade of grass and see a familiar wooden bridge in the distance, along with a series of really bright lights shining high in the sky.

"Is that...?" I pondered, walking over to the timber platform, climbing up the stairs and strolling across it. And that's when the two giant red gates and colossal stone wall that I knew all too well came into my view.

"I've... I've made it back to Beacontown!" I shouted with glee and excitement in my voice. I brushed off all of the pain that was going through my weakened legs and ran over to the big entrance. My boots thumped across the hard stone road as I hauled my limbs to the gates.

"Hopefully, that hole in the wall still hasn't been blocked off." I said to myself, staring up at the humongous gates. I looked to my right and saw that, like I hoped, the hole that I used as my escape a few times was still there. I don't know if there were some people in Beacontown who could care less about how tidy things are, but whatever. As long as I could use that gap to get in and out of the place, I was all good.

I merely walked through the hole and got greeted to the sight of no-one parading the metropolis at all. Usually, the earth would be shaking right where I stood with hundreds of people casually walking around the town, unaware of the fact that I was even here. Hell, I was even expecting Stampy to come out and accidentally step on me again like he did a few days ago.

"Maybe it's just because it's getting dark..." I wondered, looking up at the dimming sky. The moon was beginning to show itself and take the sun's place, so I had to get back inside the Order Hall where all my friends would be.

"Jesse, Axel, Olivia, Radar, Lukas, I'm coming!" I hollered, running as fast as I could to the granite-built behemoth of a building.

* * *

I rolled through the wide, rectangular gap underneath the big quartz doors and stood up when I was on the other side, safe from the dangers of the blackened night, only to see that none of my giant friends were waiting there to welcome me back.

"Jesse?" I called for my good friend, walking around on the long red carpet confused. As I was walking along, I constantly glared up at the treasures that me and my friends discovered back in the day for no particular reason. I slowly clambered up the stone brick stairs and saw that the doors on my left and right were both open. The kitchen, and the corridor where all our bedrooms were. I invited myself into the kitchen to see if anyone was in there... But no. Not a single colossal human being in sight.

"Axel?" I called for the brute as loud as I could. But he wouldn't come. I walked back into the main hall, centred myself in the front of the golden block the Order of the Stone's amulet was resting on, and put my hands across my mouth to form a circle.

"Olivia?" I tried to summon the black, somewhat geeky female as if I was a wizard. But even Olivia didn't seem to hear me. Where did everyone go? I wandered into the corridor on the right and manually scanned each room as my boots thumped along the stone floor. Yeah, apparently, all of the doors that led to our individual rooms were open. I wouldn't really mind this so much if it was just Axel who left his door open since he's quite well known to do that, but apparently everyone else had done it too!

I walked into Axel's rather dark but vibrant green bedroom and climbed up his long, green blanket. To my dismay, the thick brute wasn't there nodding off, snoring noisily in his sleep like he would be at this time of night. Looking up from Axel's white pillow, I saw that his portrait of him, me and the rest of our friends were hanging above the bed. From left to right in front of the shining Order Hall, there was Olivia, Axel, me, Jesse, Lukas and Radar. But my face was cut out of the picture entirely. Why would Axel do something like this? Even though he's done some questionable things from time to time, cutting my face out of a portrait certainly wouldn't be one of them...

I slid down Axel's green fluffy blanket, stuck a safe landing on the ground, and walked out of his room and into Olivia's, which just happened to be alongside his. Again, the black engineer wasn't in her room either, and my face was cut out of her picture of us too. Why was everyone cutting my face out of their portraits? Are they planning to write me off or something? No... They can't do that. They're my friends, and they wouldn't do anything to blatantly separate me from them.

"What gives with my face being cut out of my friends' pictures of us?" I asked myself as I walked out of Olivia's redstone red bedroom and into Lukas's.

"Lukas?" I called for the blonde fangirl magnet. At least he was before Radar was employed as Jesse's intern and took that position away from him. But it didn't seem like Lukas was there either. And just like Axel and Olivia, my face was cut off of his picture of us too. Really? Him too? Why would he cut my face out of his portrait after all the good times I spent with him and the rest of my friends? After that, I strolled straight into Radar's bedroom.

"Radar?" I tried to call out to the cocoa-skinned assistant. But just like everyone else, the brown childish intern was nowhere else to seen in his room. To be completely honest, I never set foot in Radar's room because I didn't want to invade his privacy, and hey, all interns need their alone time every once in a while... But seeing what Radar's room looked like in the flesh... was actually kinda satisfying. The whole area had an orange tone to it. And on the white mattress of the bed was a brown blanket to compliment Radar's equally brown skin. Unfortunately, this satisfaction just had to be brought to an end when I saw my face completely removed from his picture of us as well. Every time I saw this, my cringing heart felt like it was getting tugged against a titanium string. Hoping that Jesse won't have followed in his friend's footsteps with this trait, I walked out of Radar's room and into the bedroom of the one friend that I loved to be around the most...

"Jesse?!" I shouted the giant brunette's name, cupping my hands across my mouth. Jesse's bed was apparently a mess at the moment, which was somewhat unusual... The red blanket was dangling off the right side of the bed. I walked over to the clustered quilt and climbed up it, which somehow caused it to fall off all the way after I landed on the white, bouncy but hard mattress. Hopefully, Jesse wouldn't mind that inconvenience too much...

Looking up from the wide and long terrain of the white bedding, I saw that, sadly, just like everyone else did in their rooms, Jesse's picture of him, me and our friends had my face cut out of the portrait entirely.

"But... why?" I gasped, unable to grasp the reasoning behind this baffling decision. "Why is everyone cutting my face out of their photos? Why is everyone's room so deserted? Where is everybody?"

At that instant, I heard loud thumping noises. These sounds managed to send shivers down my spine, so I backed away from the scary noises until my body was resting on Jesse's giant, plushy pillow.

"G... Go away, whatever you are!" I shouted, closing my eyes and looking away from the open door, the frightening thumping noises becoming louder and louder by the minute. "I... If it's urgent, just don't eat me, whatever you do!"

"There's nobody here." I heard a familiar deep voice say to me when the thumping noises stopped. I opened my eyes to see that Aiden was there, kneeling down on his knees, staring at my tiny body with his sick green eyes, and donning his green shirt and signature black Blaze Rods jacket. "It's just you and me, Pets."

"Aiden!" I exclaimed as I got back out from the pillow and walked over to face the giant rascal. "What have you come here for?! Have you come to make me lick your cheesy feet again?"

"Oh no, Petra. Far from it, in fact." Aiden responded. "I've just come here to tell you that none of your friends are here right now."

"Well, I could certainly tell that much without your help." I replied with a snarky tone in my voice. "Where did they all go?"

"Champion City, I think..." Aiden answered seemingly on the spot.

"Champion City?" I inquired about Aiden's reply.

"Yeah..." Aiden trailed off, standing up and staring at the wall. "Ever since me and the Blaze Rods took you away from your friends, they apparently went up to Champion City, asked Stella to throw them the biggest party of their lives, and carry on as if you weren't even their friend anymore." Aiden brought his overly bright emeralds back over to me and kneeled on his knees again. "Long story short, Petra... After Gill and Maya took you over to our house and I informed the Order of the Losers of your disappearance, they were just so happy to finally be rid of you."

I felt so shocked and confounded when I heard what Aiden was trying to sell me. Out of all of the things my friends would tick off their bucket lists before they died, acting so joyful and pleased about my kidnapping sounded too cruel and mean to be one of them...

"That's a lie!" I shouted, clenching my fists as a tear started to drip down my cheek. "I don't believe a word that you're saying, Aiden!"

"Come on Petra, just trust me..." Aiden tried to assure me.

"Trust you?!" I blurted out in anger. "Why on earth should I trust you?! Your trust is as worth having as Wither Sickness!"

"But I'm telling the truth!" Aiden retorted, pushing his big brow against my small noggin. "Your friends don't even care for you anymore!"

"Well, if you really are telling the truth, then I demand that you prove it to me this instant!" I yelled, performing a pseudo-headbutt on Aiden's giant, hard forehead.

"I will, my darling..." Aiden cooed, laying his hand out on the plushy red blanket. "I certainly will..."

I stared down at my ex-boyfriend's huge hand in hesitation. "Afraid?" He asked me.

"No!" I replied, walking onto his big, stiff palm. The giant smirking man then brought me up to his face and said "Good. Time to see for yourself then."

* * *

Aiden walked out of Jesse's area and opened the door to my bedroom with his spare hand. While still having me in his carrying hand, he walked around my queen-sized bed and stopped to let me take a look at my portrait of me and my friends. And, what felt like the final bullet to my stomach, my heart seemed to sink in a sea of tears when I saw that my face had been cut out of this picture too...

"What...?" I cried, my waterworks starting to turn themselves on as I sat down in Aiden's palm.

"They did that to all their pictures that had you in them right after I told them you were gone." Aiden said. "Your used-to-be-boyfriend Jesse said... _Who wants to look at that ugly face again? Take it away._ "

A sob rose across my throat as I cried and an avalanche of wet tears came flowing down my cheeks. "So... my friends, even Jesse... They... really don't care about me anymore?" I sniffled as I used my sleeve to wipe away my pouring tears, not wanting to believe such a shocking thing.

"Yes." Aiden bluntly stated, putting me down and planting me on the floor in front of his feet. "I'm sorry to break your heart, Petra, but that's really what happened. If you feel like you don't belong here anymore, you're free to run away if you want."

"I will..." I sobbed as I turned my back on Aiden's humongous shoes and began my melancholic walk out of the Order Hall. "Goodbye, old pals... It was nice knowing you all while our friendship lasted..."

* * *

I slowly slumped out of the Order Hall to be greeted back by the completely black sky, which was now pouring an infinite amount of pattering raindrops and making the spine-chilling booming sounds of thunder, the perfect metaphor for how I was feeling right now.

I walked across the barren, empty area of Beacontown with my head drooping down at the ground, my clothes getting all soggy from the huge raindrops that were falling down from the blackened heavens above. The tears that were pouring out my eyes were now coming down as fast as a kitchen sink tap would allow.

I continued to cry as my saddened chocolate brown eyes glared at all the gargantuan landmarks that everyone made from the ground up with their own materials, blood, sweat and tears... The giant beacon build made to look like the Order of the Stone's amulet, Nell's surf shop, the purple octopus out of water, the connecting treehouses, Stampy and Stacy's houses... All of the things that these people worked so hard to create now brought me dismay rather than satisfaction just looking at them.

I walked through the hole in the colossal stone wall that everyone still had yet to patch up, positioned myself in front of the giant, closed red gates when I was on the other side, and looked back at them...

"Goodbye, Beacontown..." I whimpered, bawling my eyes out and walking away, turning my back on the place I was glad to call my home for the past seven years.


	23. Us and Them

**_Chapter 23: Us and Them_**

* * *

After slowly walking what felt like miles away from Beacontown, I came across a red, white-dotted mushroom that was laying in the endless field of grass. Using a stash of bonemeal that someone most likely left behind, I made the mushroom grow instantaneously, trapping me within it's rather hard and cold interior, but thankfully keeping me safe from the pouring rain and booming thunder.

I punched away the stalk in the middle to make room as the raindrops continued to pitter-patter on the roof. It felt as if I was punching my first tree to the ground, and that tree was so hard to the point where it wasn't going to go down that easily. Not that I wasn't going to be able to get rid of the titanium pole though. After a few minutes of putting my hands through absolute hell, the stalk was finally dismantled and gone, which thankfully, didn't cause the rest of the mushroom to come crashing down on me.

I let out a sharp breath and rubbed my aching hands as I felt a bunch of weights lift themselves off my shoulders. You'd think I'd feel at least a little bit better for punching down a giant mushroom stalk, but no... I ended up sitting down against the freezing wall behind me and started crying into my knees yet again.

"Why, Jesse...?" I sobbed, shielding my leaking eyes with my hands. "Why would you and your friends do such a thing...? Have you forgotten about all the good times we had together...?"

I brought my mind to all of the different memories of me spending time with my friends and making them happy...

 _That time me and Jesse jumped off a bridge together and his emerald eyes stared into my chocolate orbs with a suggestive smirk on his face..._

 _That time I hugged Axel and Jesse when I reunited with them in the Old Order of the Stone's temple..._

 _That time I practiced my signature "Warrior Whip" team attack with Jesse when we were alone..._

 _That time I told Lukas not to let the Blaze Rods bring him down about his writing since they just wanted to get a reaction out of him..._

 _That time I tried to help Olivia out with some of her builds even though I didn't know that much about redstone myself..._

 _And that time where I helped Radar become the confident young intern that he is today..._

All of these beautiful memories that once held special places in my heart that I didn't want to abandon were now enough to bring me to tears when I even thought of the people who used to be my friends...

"I gave you guys several years of my life..." I cried, a torrent of salty tears leaking out of my eyes like water faucets. "And you just threw it all away... I gave all of that time away to you for nothing..." I couldn't talk anymore after that for I was too sad to even form a proper sentence. I buried my face in my hands and cried into them, my palms becoming just as soggy as my clothes from all the tears I was letting out.

"I thought you guys loved me just as much as I loved you..." I sniffled, unable to break out of my current state of melancholy and sorrow. "I guess I was proven wrong today..."

After crying for a couple more seconds, I started hearing knocking sounds coming from the exterior of the mushroom, right behind me... "Petra, is that you? Can you please let me in?" I heard a male voice ask me as the knocking noises ceased to end. I knew that voice way too well to know who it was...

"Aiden, go away..." I moped, wafting my gloved hand to my right.

"But Petra, it's friggin' pouring it down out here!" Aiden retorted, banging on the mushroom more harder this time. "Please, let me in! I've got something to tell you!"

"Why should I let you in after you told me what happened with my friends and broke my heart?!" I wailed, wiping my tears away with my hands.

"Come on Petra, this is really important! You've gotta let me in!" Aiden yelled, sounding like he was now pounding his fists on the mushroom as hard as he could.

I let out a sigh, got up to my feet, and replied with the simple word "Okay..."

And with that, I started punching a hole in the mushroom's stupidly hard walls from where I heard the knocking as hard as I could bother to try, hoping to see Aiden's giant feet positioned outside my red shelter any moment now. When I finally made a gap that was big enough for me to walk in and out of the mushroom, I panted, looking down and placing my hands on my knees for a few seconds. Then, I looked back up at the hole I created to see... Was that Aiden? My wet brown-haired ex closed his lime green eyes and waved at me with a grin as he welcomed himself inside. Something about him was off... I was roughly the size of his shoe the last time I saw him... Now he was just about as tall as me! What gives?!

"Aiden?" I said his name, placing some spare glass where I made the hole to drown out the racket of the rain a bit. "What happened to you? Last time I saw you, I was like the size of your shoe! Why are you now-"

"Yeah yeah, I know... I've got a lot of explaining to do..." The now "just-as-tall-as-me" Aiden interrupted my sentence, laying against the wall that was the opposite side of me and making gestures with his hands. "Now, you might be wondering how or why I've become just as small as you..."

"That's what I'd like to kn-" I tried to state.

"Well, me and the Blaze Rods read about that shrinking potion the grouchy alchemist Ivor made..." Aiden started, clearly interrupting my sentence yet again. "We figured that since there's a time limit on that thing, it would be fun for us to make you our little tiny slave pet until the end of time."

"Wait!" I exclaimed, grabbing Aiden's lips and gradually becoming sweaty. "Those shrinking potions I drank a week ago... There's a time limit?!"

"Yes...?" Aiden muffled while cringing. "Can you please let go of my lips?"

"I will! But when I do, you've got to tell me what this whole time limit thing is about first!" I demanded, letting go of Aiden's lips as he requested.

"Phew... Okay..." Aiden mustered as he stood up, rubbing his lips. "So yeah, the time limit... I don't know if Ivor told you this, but there's a time limit to when you can drink the antidote once the shrinking potion is consumed. Supposedly, if one does not drink the antidote 168 hours, or a week after shrinking, the antidote will have no effect from that point onward, thus causing the subject to remain tiny forever. I can't say this from experience since the potion has only taken effect on me for like thirteen minutes, but-Owwww!"

I slapped Aiden across the cheek at the same time a thunder bang happened to occur. I was really pissed off at the fact that no-one had told me about this "time limit" until now. "You kidnapped me knowing that there's a time limit to Ivor's shrinking potions?!" I shouted as loud as my throat could allow before being utterly destroyed. "You literally tried to endanger my chances of getting back to my normal size?!"

"Whoa, Petra! Calm your nonexistent tits!" Aiden squeaked, blocking my karate chops by grabbing my arms. "It's not too late yet! Just calm down and listen to me!" I huffed and puffed with anger as my mad chocolate orbs stared at Aiden's frightened face. Soon, I was able to calm myself down and Aiden let go of the arm that I was going to use to hurt him even more than I already did.

"Good." Aiden said. "Now then, as I was saying... It's not too late yet." He stared down his arm and rolled up his sleeve to look at his golden watch. "If we were to follow Ivor's calculations with this, I'd say that you've got currently eighteen minutes left to get back to Ivor's house in Beacontown and drink that antidote. Come on Petra, there's no time to lose!"

"Wait a minute!" I told Aiden, grabbing him by the arm before he could punch the glass I placed. "Aiden... Why are you helping me get back to Beacontown all of a sudden?"

"Don't you get it, Petra?!" Aiden replied, trying to break free of my firm grasp. "Your friends... Lukas, Axel, Olivia, Radar, even Jesse... They're all miserable without you!"

"But I thought you said-" I tried to retort.

"I know what I said!" Aiden cut me off, swatting my arm away from his. "I... I lied, okay?! On my way to the Order Hall, I saw them running all over the place, plastering missing posters of you wherever they could! And as much as I hate you for dumping me in the past, I didn't really want to separate you from your friends like that! Yes, I know I'm not a very nice guy, but even I have my limits when it comes to breaking peoples' hearts..."

"And this is coming from the guy who started the Sky City apocalypse..." I pouted, placing my fists on the sides of my chest.

"Can you just forget about that and pretend it never happened?! That was seven years ago!" Aiden barked at me, shattering the glass by waving his clenched fist at the fragile material. "Oops." He creaked, realising what he'd just done. "Anyway... No hard feelings, right? Are we going to start anew once all of this is over?"

"I just hope we can get to that antidote in time..." I noted, stepping outside into the great unknown at the same time as Aiden. Thankfully for us, it had stopped raining but the thunder bangs were still present, scaring us when we least expected it.

"So... what does this antidote look like?" I asked Aiden, looking over at him.

"I don't know..." Aiden shrugged with a face of uncertainty. "Ivor's diary didn't tell me much at all. All it told me was that he was keeping it hidden in a place where intruders wouldn't find it."

"Well, hopefully _we'll_ be able to find it before I'm stuck like this forever..." I added. "How much time do we have?"

Aiden looked at the watch on his arm again. "Seventeen minutes left." He answered. "Vamos, Petra!" And with that, we were both off to get back to Beacontown and retrieve the antidote that would get back me to my normal size.

"You know, Aiden..." I started, looking over at Aiden who was running by my side, almost as if we were in sync. "If you came here to help me, don't you think it would've been way more efficient not to shrink yourself too?"

"Oh yeah, you're right..." Aiden realised, his smile dropping from his face. "Crap... Guess it's too late for me to correct _that_ mistake, huh?" I just merely cracked a playful laugh at Aiden's somewhat flawed decision.

* * *

By retracing my steps, which wasn't that hard to do since I mainly walked away from Beacontown in a straight line, we were able to see that familiar wooden bridge and those giant red gates far in the distance.

"Woooo!" I whooped, throwing my arms up in the air and pointed at the protracted, closed crimson doors. "There it is! Beacontown! See, Aiden? I told you we'd find our way back with no problems at all!"

"And with eleven minutes to spare, no less!" Aiden added in, pointing at his shiny watch.

"Haha! We've got plenty of time to find that antidote!" I laughed, picking up the pace while Aiden started to fall behind a bit.

"Hey, Petra, wait up! You know my legs aren't as fast as yours!" Aiden giggled, trying to catch up with me. "You may have taught me everything there is to know about combat, but you can't teach me everything there is to know about speed!"

"You know, Aiden... I think I'm actually starting to enjoy having you as a friend again..." I said as I plunked my arm around Aiden's neck. "Just like old times... Wouldn't you agree?"

"Yeah, Petra..." Aiden breathed, losing himself in the beautiful, bright, white stars up in the blackened sky. "It only feels like eight years ago when you used to be my girlfriend... Imagine how different things would've been if me and my friends weren't such complete slimeballs to Jesse and his group of friends back then..."

I was quite surprised at how quickly I was able to forgive Aiden, both verbally and mentally, for everything he did after I kicked his heart in the ass by dumping him in the past. Even with all the rude and inconsiderate things he and his friends did like rub their EnderCon victory in Jesse's face, destroy Sky City as everyone knew it, and even straight up lie to my face about how my friends handled me getting kidnapped, I knew I couldn't hate the guy forever.

"Come on, pinhead! Last one there's rotten flesh!" I playfully taunted, letting go of Aiden's neck and running as fast as I could go.

"I think we both know who the winner's gonna be!" Aiden laughed as he tried his best to catch up with me, gradually coming in so close as we neared the big wooden bridge.

"And by the fraction of web on a spider's back, the winner is..." I tried to complete my own sentence, only for me and Aiden to get knocked back by two pairs of big feet crashing down on the ground in front of us.

"Whoa..." I gasped, pulling myself off the ground as I looked up to see who those feet belonged to. Diverting my chocolate eyes from the huge, respective white and brown shoes, tan and dark blue jeans, and the white and red shirts that were covered up by black Blaze Rod jackets, my jaw dropped when I saw that Gill and Maya were standing there, looming above our small, helpless bodies, staring down at us the longer I stood there frozen in place.

"Well, well, well... Look who decided to turn on us and help the tiny, helpless redhead girl get back to her hometown..." Maya sneered, her hands fiddling with deceit.

"You guys again?!" I commented, forcing myself to stand up as Aiden got back up too with a grunt.

"You thought you could just stab us in the back like Petra did to you eight years ago, didn't you, Aiden?" Maya chuckled, her evil ocean blue eyes looking down at her small ex-friend. "Well, guess again! We're not letting you or the redhead get past us! And if even try to do so, well... You can both say goodbye to the rest of your long, happy lives."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Wait, Maya! Let's be reasonable here!" Aiden tried to insist with the sinister giantess, pushing me aside.

"Reasonable?!" Maya laughed out loud at Aiden's suggestion. "Why should we be reasonable when you're ditching our plan and helping Petra get back to her regular size?!"

"Wait, how did you-" Aiden asked.

"Isn't it blatantly obvious?" Maya cracked. "It's ten to eleven at night! Why wouldn't you be trying to get Petra the antidote if you're shrinking yourself down to her size and teaming up with her?!"

"Maya, please! This isn't what it looks like! Just let us through!" Aiden shouted in desperation, falling to his knees.

"Hmmm... no thanks." Maya refused. "I thought you were a true friend to us, Aiden. I guess I was wrong. You're not our friend... you're a traitor. And you know what we do to traitors..." Maya then raised her foot and slowly began to lower it back down onto the ground, intending to squash Aiden flat under her shoe. Aiden curled up into a ball and shielded his eyes as he prepared to meet the end of his life.

What was I going to do?! I couldn't just make a mad dash for it and leave Aiden to die while I went to find the antidote on my own... And I'm really sure that trying to fight back against these hulking giants wouldn't get us anywhere...

As much as I hated this last solution with a flaming passion, I was afraid that this was going to be my only choice if I wanted to save us both... I had to reason with the Blaze Rods myself.

"MAYA, STOP!" I shrieked, running underneath the sole of Maya's giant brown shoe and causing her to stop moving her foot downwards. The giantess laid her right foot by her left, curious to hear what I was going to say to her.

"What do you want this time, you puny woman?" Maya inquired. "Are you actually willing to save your ex's life by standing in my way? It's not like it was going to work anyway if you didn't shriek at the top of your damn lungs."

"Well... can you please listen to me?" I asked the big, cruel giantess before me. "This is actually important regarding friends, enemies and all that stuff..."

"Okay, me and Gill are listening..." Maya said, wafting her hand over to Gill, who was staring at me too. "But you better make it quick before I decide to smush you too."

"Alright..." I sighed, breathing in and out to prepare for my tremendous speech. Then, like I was some inspirational war hero, all of my emotions and words came flying out of the mouth like it was no big deal. "You think that Aiden betrayed you just because he's trying to help me get back to normal?! If that isn't the pettiest thing I've ever heard, I don't know what is! Are you trying to say that he's not allowed to be good friends on both spectrums?! I mean, sure, I dumped him eight years ago because he and you were being dicks to Jesse and his friends, and I've pretty much hated his guts ever since that big break-up, seeing as how you've continued to rub your victories in their faces, destroyed an innocent civilisation that people built from the ground... well... sky up, and even go as far as to kidnap me when I was starting to run out of time to get the antidote I need to get back to my normal size... But regardless of all that, I forgave Aiden because he actually wants to help me this time around! You see?! You don't need to have the brightest past to make amends with an enemy who was once your friend! All you need to do is just give it time and let your new friendship start from there! That is what a fresh new start is all about!" By the time I had finished with my epic speech, I felt like I was starting to run out of breath, as signified by the fact that I was now panting and pressing my chest with my gloved hand.

"Wow, Petra..." Aiden gasped, trying his best to make me feel better without much physical contact. "You really came straight from the heart with that one..."

"Well, I think that was all the small redhead had to say to us." Maya said to Gill. "How do you suggest we congratulate her effort?"

Gill put on a sickening smirk and instructed Maya to... "Squash them both."

"BOTH?!" Aiden blurted out, looking up at the humongous Gill and Maya as the latter rose her foot to the sky again.

"Couldn't have come up with a better idea myself, Gill." Maya cackled, lowering her enormous shoe down to the ground. Taking action immediately, I lunged forward in a random direction away from the Blaze Rods, pulling Aiden out of the way with me just before Maya could squish us under her foot. Her shoe hit the floor with a **_BOOM!_** and sent us tumbling across the cold, hard ground with it's "shockwaves".

"No! Don't squash us both!" I replied to our giant threats, standing back up and letting go of Aiden. "It's just me you want! Come and get me!"

"Petra, what are you doing?!" Aiden shouted hysterically. "Are you insane?! There's no way you can stand a chance against two people who are Notch-knows-how-many-times your size!"

"Relax, Aiden..." I assured the man beside me, rubbing his shoulders. "I'll make sure that everything's under contro-" My sentence was cut by Maya clenching her hand around me, putting such a tight grip on me that I was struggling to break free on my own. "Help... Getting crushed... Can't breathe..." The mean giant girl brought me up to her deadly sapphire eyes.

"I really can't believe how much of an idiot you are, Petra..." Maya sighed. "Trying to make us change our minds about letting you past with worthless, pathetic words? You really are stupid."

"Wh... What are you going to do to me?" I chattered in fear the more it felt like Maya was crushing me and depriving me of fresh air.

"Well, considering how much of a nuisance you've been, not cooperating with us and turning Aiden against us, I think it's best for me to have you as a pre-midnight snack." Maya snickered, loosening her grip on me and putting another equally tight grip on my blue tunic with two of her fingers.

"Uh-oh..." I gasped when Maya brought me up to the sky and underneath her face. I felt like I was going to slip out of my tunic at any moment. The giant woman then opened her huge, cavernous mouth with a "Aaaaaaaa!", sticking out her big red tongue like she was a dog.

"Well... it looks like this is the end for me..." I sobbed, shielding my eyes as I felt myself starting to slip out of my tunic. Who would've thought that the way I died would be getting eaten alive by a giant Maya?

"Keep your mouth open good, Maya." I heard Gill encourage her. "You want your taste buds to savour every last nutritional sensation of how Petra will taste." I just kept my eyes closed and covered up by my hands as I waited for the moment where Maya would let go of me and send me travelling down her dark, smelly mouth.

After a few seconds of anticipating my death, Maya let out a howl of pain and let go of me, sending me bouncing off her chin and into Aiden's arms. Looking over at the golden object that Aiden tossed to his right before catching me, it turns out that Aiden had stabbed Maya in the foot with Miss Butter! Maya bounced up and down, holding her bad foot while letting out grunts of agony. Eventually, she stopped her act of pain and looked down at Aiden.

"Aiden, what the hell?!" Maya shouted at her attacker. "I thought you would still be on our side a bit!"

"Well, you can guess again, Maya!" Aiden retorted. "Consider the Blaze Rods disbanded!"

"You wouldn't!" Gill yelled, staring down at their double-crosser.

"Oh yes, I would!" Aiden replied. "And if you don't let us past right this instant, you can kiss your past friendship with me goodbye!" I almost couldn't believe that Aiden was willing to give up his companionship with Gill and Maya to let me back into Beacontown... I really liked this new Aiden...

"Grrrrr, you dirty little back-stabber!" Maya growled, getting her hands out to grab us. "I'm gonna teach you how it feels to get left behind in the dir-" Her tirade of anger was brought to a sudden end when an arrow came whizzing by, barely missing her.

"Whoa!" She exclaimed, darting out of the arrow's way and landing butt first onto the grass. We all looked in Maya's direction to see who or what had shot the arrow at her. As I suspected, it was a skeleton. An enormous, grey, hulking skeleton with a bow in it's right hand, putting another arrow in it's left and preparing to make it's second attack. The arrow came springing at Maya, which she just managed to avoid without getting hit!

"Skeleton! Run!" Maya yelled, fleeing from the bag of bones like her life depended on it.

"But what about Aiden and Petra?!" Gill hollered, refusing to move an inch from where he was.

"Forget Aiden and Petra! Let's just get out of here!" Maya shouted back at Gill in the distance. "Coming out at night was the worst mistake we could ever make!"

Gill let out a cry of fear and ran away following Maya as the skeleton started shooting at him too. Aiden grabbed Miss Butter and placed it underneath my backside, did likewise and ran as fast as he could across the huge, wooden bridge with me in his arms. I could tell he would've been able to get on through to the other side much faster without me weighing him down, but at least he was able to get by without the big bad skeleton noticing us too, most of that probably being helped by our insignificant sizes. Aiden laid me and Miss Butter on the ground when we were at the big, red, protracted gates of Beacontown, safe from the Blaze Rods and the skeleton, who just seemed to walk away, going on with it's life which would most likely end when the sun came up.

"Aiden..." I blurted happily at my shrunken rescuer. "You saved me."

"Anything for making amends with my past girlfriend..." Aiden laughed at my gratification as he pulled up his sleeve and took a look at the watch on his arm. "Seven minutes left! We've still got plenty of time to get you back to normal, Petra! This game is over for the Blaze Rods!"

"Thank you, Aiden." I smiled at him. "I knew you'd have a change of heart sooner or later in your life."

"Haha! That's because I'm not afraid to leave my current friends behind in favour of making amends with old ones!" Aiden boasted, placing his fists on the sides of his chest and gazing up at the sky as if he was on the top of the world.

As Aiden stared up at the black night sky, I heard loud, violent thumping noises coming from behind us. I looked back at the wooden bridge to see that Gill was slowly dragging his feet across the bridge, making his way towards us as he pulled an arrow out of his arm and let out a grunt of frustration.

"Uhh... Hello? Earth to Aiden?" I tried bringing back Aiden to reality, tapping his shoulder.

"Those Blaze Rods think they're so tough!" Aiden chortled, refusing to break eye contact with the dark sky. Gill was walking down the bridge, making his way to our side now, and I knew that I was going to have to do something to warn Aiden right this second.

"AIDEN!" I shouted, shaking him back and forth like a ragdoll.

"Whoa whoa, Petra! What is wrong with you?" Aiden asked me, trying to safety himself from my rather violent shaking spree. "I thought we did pretty good for two pint-sized people who saw good in their relationship again!"

"Pretty good for two **dead** pint-sized people, you mean." Gill snorted, standing right above us with a dangerous snarling frown on his face.

"Oh god..." Aiden gasped when he looked over at Gill, getting frozen in place as the giant Blaze Rod lifted up his foot and prepared to squash Aiden.

"You thought you could just help Petra out and treat me and Maya like dirt?!" Gill snarled. "Well, guess again, you filthy back-stabbing slimeball!"

Gill then started to lower his raised foot onto the ground very slowly... Now I was really caught between a rock and a hard place when it came to the choices I had! How was I, a small, tiny, pathetic redhead, going to save Aiden from the giant, hulking final boss?!

"Say goodbye to your refound girlfriend, Aiden..." Gill grunted as Aiden tried to prevent the enormous Blaze Rod's shoe from crushing him. Much to Aiden's luck, Gill seemed to stop applying more force onto Aiden's small, helpless body when he felt something touch his butt from behind. Gill put his foot back down away from Aiden to see that the thing touching his butt and interrupting his attempt to kill Aiden was... Lluna?!

The scarfed llama with fur as white as snow gave Gill a grunt that said "If you do that, I'll make sure that you'll pay the consequences." How convenient that Lluna managed to run into us while she seemed to be roaming around the vast, open world around her!

Gill just merely laughed at the persistent llama which continued to stare up at him. "What kind of damage do you think you can do against me?!" He cackled and snorted. "You're just a stupid, defenceless llama! I'd like to see you lay your feet on me if you could! Oh wait, that's right! You can't! Because you're the most useless animal to walk this earth since pigs!"

Lluna responded to Gill's degenerate insult by head-butting him in the nuts with a grunt. "Ooomph!" The Blaze Rod groused, grabbing the area where Lluna just head-butted him as he fell back first onto the ground behind him. Lluna then continued her method of torture by positioned all four of her legs on his chest and jumping all over it, which caused him to scream out in agony.

Gill tried to roll away to get Lluna off his injured torso, which urged us to get out of the way to avoid getting squished as if Gill was a road paver. The damaged, giant Blaze Rod then stood up on his feet, rubbing his hands all over his broken carcass.

"Ugh! You llamas are so damn cocky!" Gill snarled, letting out a sharp breath and limping away from the energetic and tenacious Lluna. "Hit in the privates and stepped on by a poignant llama! What could be worse than that and getting shot at by a skeleton?!"

Then, as if to answer Gill's question, Lluna gave out a llama call, summoning tons of her kin from way behind her like magic. Brown llamas, grey llamas, white llamas such as herself, and creamy llamas. The gang all stampeded their way towards Gill, their thundering footsteps all making one big earth-shaking tremor.

"Oh god..." Gill fretted, looking from behind him and running away from the thousands of approaching llamas like he never ran before.

"We should probably hide too!" I told Aiden, grabbing him by the arm and taking shelter in the hole in the wall that still wasn't patched up. Geez, and I thought I was lazy sometimes...

As the giant tremor got worse and worse, we watched as thousands of big llama feet ran right by the hole we were hiding in, all of them intent on chasing after Gill.

"No no no, please! Nice llamas, nice llamas!" Gill cried as he ran away from the rampaging animals of different colours. When the llamas' feet were no longer in our view, we peeked out of the hole to see that Gill was flailing his arms about as if he was swimming through the air, trying desperately to avoid getting destroyed by the pursuing crowd of multi-coloured llamas. "No! No! Nooooooooo!"

When Gill and the llamas were no longer in our vision, we both stepped out of the hole and walked over to Lluna's feet, who was the only llama not to chase after Gill. The huge, white llama let out a pleasant grunt, as if to say "I sure am glad you're safe, Petra."

"Hahahaha... I don't know what we would've done if you hadn't shown up and saved us, Lluna." I complimented our frosted rescuer, hugging her big, fluffy leg. "Thank you."

Lluna kneeled down and beamed a smile at me, giving another pleasant grunt that said "You're welcome" before walking off, minding her own business.

"Wow, Petra... Your pet is cute and fluffy on the outside, but really strong and intimidating on the inside." Aiden said behind my back. "Did you teach it to do all that before you shrunk?"

"Haha... No. She's not mine, she belongs to Stella. Or used to anyway... The poor llama doesn't want to come back to her in a million years." I answered Aiden's question.

"Why is that?" Aiden inquired.

"Let's just say that... this Stella person she belongs to is awfully rude and has no concern for her at all." I said.

"Oh... geez. That sounds awful, especially for a llama who does nothing wrong." Aiden moped. "Well, at least she's free for now."

"Yeah. And that's what matters the most to her." I smiled. "Come on Aiden, there's no-one else who'll dare to get in our way now. Let's go get the antidote." And with that, we both re-entered the hole in the wall and walked on over to Beacontown's interior.


	24. Don't Need To Be Tall To Have Adventures

**_Chapter 24: You Don't Need To Be A Tall Person To Have Big Adventures_**

* * *

"You know, Aiden... Despite how much of a pain in the ass you used to be, I sure am glad that you decided to have a change of heart after all these years." I smiled at my refound companion as we ran across the giant, empty roads and lit houses of Beacontown.

"Well, it's not like I was going to let you remain tiny forever after I lied to you on purpose." Aiden replied. "After all, I may have been a very naughty boy, but I didn't really want you to suffer to that extent. And even if helping you might have cost Gill and Maya their lives, I don't regret changing my attitude for you one bit." The new Aiden looked down at his watch as we both ran in sync. "Five minutes left. We can still make it."

"If we can get there as fast as we can!" I blurted, grabbing Aiden's arm and picking up the pace. Aiden let out a shrill of shock when he felt a sudden increase of speed from my tight grip on him.

"If I remember this place correctly, Ivor's house should be somewhat close to yours, right?" Aiden asked me.

"Yeah." I answered, panting as I continued to run to the alchemist's octopus-like house as fast as I could. "You've just gotta listen for the sounds of flowing water rather than look out for lava now..."

* * *

Without much trouble at all, we both found ourselves at the humongous wooden ladder to Ivor's big water-spewing house. Exactly how we were going to get up this thing was way beyond me. The only way I did reach the top at this size was by hiding in Jesse's shirt pocket while he did all the climbing himself.

"Four minutes left..." Aiden commented, pointing at his watch. "How do you suppose we get up there? The gaps between each step look too high for us to reach..."

"Give me a boost." I suggested.

"What?" Aiden asked, unsure of what I wanted him to do.

"Give me a boost." I repeated what I just said. "You stick your hands out, I put my foot on them, and that's when you throw me up to each step and I help you up too.

"Okay... If you say so..." Aiden trailed off, standing in front of the bottom of the ladder and sticking out his hands to boost me up to that first step. I prepared myself for about three seconds, and as fast as lightning, I ran over to where Aiden was, planting my right foot on his hands, which caused him to let out a grunt and throw me up to the ladder's first step. I grabbed the edge of the step with both of my hands and pulled myself up, kneeling down and sticking out my hand for Aiden to grab and send him up with me.

We repeated this process until we were finally at the huge, titanium iron door which my antidote would hopefully lie behind.

* * *

"Geez... Talk about easier said than done... How much time do we left?" I asked Aiden, who was equally as exhausted as me.

Aiden gasped in fear when he looked at the watch on his arm. "One minute!"

"We've got to hurry up!" I shrieked hysterically, running towards the iron door and desperately trying to squeeze myself under it.

"How tight does this friggin' gap have to be?!" I shouted as Aiden tried to squeeze himself under the hole too. I let out grunts and cries of frustration as I squirmed around the tight gap and pulled myself out onto the other side of the door and into the house with my hands. I let Aiden grab my hands and pulled him out of the tight gap under the door too. The former Blaze Rod panted when he finally came out on the other side.

"Is that the antidote over there?" Aiden asked, pointing to a bottle full of a glowing green liquid perched on the table behind me.

"I don't know what that is but hopefully it's what we're looking for!" I blurted out my answer. "Come on! Climb up that table and get it down here!"

"Thirty seconds!" Aiden gasped as he ran over to the nearest table leg and stared at his watch. The man quickly clambered up the big, wooden pole that was help keeping the thick rectangle made out of the same material in place. When Aiden reached the top of the table, he ran towards the illuminating green bottle without giving himself any time to breathe after climbing up at such a demanding speed, pushed the potion towards my side of the table with the last ounces of strength he seemed to have left, and simply let the glass container shatter on the ground with a **_CRASH!_**

Aiden jumped down onto the ground with the shattered potion and stood in the vibrant green liquid that was starting to leak all over the place. "Ten seconds, Petra!" He screamed at me, urging me to try it. "Drink this, quick!"

With no hesitation whatsoever, I decided to stand in the green liquid myself. I didn't mind if I was getting my boots wet and dirty from standing in it, stuff like that happened all the time when I was out adventuring so what was the big deal? Aiden and I quickly scooped up the biggest handfuls of the poison-esque liquid we could and forced it right into our mouths and down our throats with a slurp. I didn't know if this really was another one of Ivor's potions of poison or not, but considering how very little time I had left before the antidote would no longer work, I refused to take any chances.

I brought my hands up to my vision and stared down at my boots, not feeling any side-effects from drinking the potion right away. However, after five short seconds of what felt like utter disappointment, I started to feel a tingling sensation in my body and me and Aiden gradually began to grow back to our normal size. That green liquid we drank... it **WAS** the antidote!

"Aiden... It's actually working!" I laughed, unable to fully contain the fact that I wasn't going to remain shrunken for the rest of my life after all. The antidote didn't make me feel like the table and chests are shrinking down to our size, it actually made me feel like I was taking plenty of pleasant steps backwards and regaining that one thing I left behind and lost for good: my regular, everyday size.

When the antidote had fully taken effect, bringing us both back to our normal size and making our clothes grow too, I simply let out a laugh of joy as me and Aiden both walked out of Ivor's house and climbed down the ladder which we boosted each other up as if it was now the easiest thing in the world to go up and down on. When we reached the bottom and touched the ground, I quickly snatched Aiden up in a tight hug.

"Aiden... Thank you." I complimented my former enemy. I never thought I'd be thanking Aiden for something this much in a million years... "Somehow, I knew that deep down inside, there was a glimmer of a good person inside of you." Hugging Aiden felt kinda nice, his body didn't feel too soft, but at the same time, he wasn't too cold or too warm.

"Haha... Oh, don't mention it, Petra. Ever." Aiden said, turning his pleasant tone to a blunt one at the last second.

"But... why? I mean, you just saved the remainder of my regular, everyday life. Why shouldn't I spread the word about a good deed from a guy who used to be such a slimeball?" I asked Aiden, letting go of him.

"Well, let's just say that if, uh..." Aiden took a while to get the words he wanted to say out of his mouth. "If your friends knew about this, they'd most likely kill me."

"I'm pretty sure that they'll understand your reasoning." I said with a laugh.

Aiden laughed exactly as I did and replied "No, they won't. I think it's best for us if you keep our fresh new start between us, okay?"

"Okay. When we meet again, Aiden." I said, waving goodbye to my refound friend.

"I'll hopefully see you later, Petra." Aiden said as he waved his hand back at me with a smile and I watched him run off out of Beacontown to the big, red closed gates. I didn't know exactly how he was going to get out of there since the gates were locked, but whatever. As long as Aiden was happy to be my friend again, I was happy.

* * *

Glad to leave Aiden's bitter past behind both of us for good, I turned around to face the Order Hall. Boy, did it feel good to finally be back to my normal size! I walked up to the big, locked quartz doors and used my left chocolate eye to peek through the giant opening's keyhole.

Through the hole, I could see... all of my friends, plus a few citizens of Beacontown I personally knew, crying and moping in different spots of the hallway.

Axel was sitting on the stairs, crying into his hands while Olivia rubbed his back...

Lukas was laying next to the treasure stands, sniffling while writing into his journal with Radar watching him with a look of teary-eyed misery...

Stampy and Stacy were both sharing a look of grief-stricken dismay as they scanned the hallway...

Nell was also sitting on the stairs with Axel and Olivia, who looked just as disappointed as the rest of the people in here...

And Ivor was standing next to Jesse, who was literally leaking tears out of his miserable emerald eyes like water faucets.

"You have to do something, Ivor!" Jesse cried, shaking Ivor's shoulders. "Make a new potion or whatever!"

"I'm so sorry, Jesse. It's too late..." Ivor moped. "We tried our best to find her but we were too slow..."

"Forget that plan then! Make a time machine!" Jesse shouted, his eyes still refusing to stop pouring out a never-ending supply of tears. "I mean, you've gotta be smart enough to make a time machine, right? Make it so that you can turn back the clock before Petra falls asleep the night before!"

"What do you think I am, a rocket scientist?!" Ivor exclaimed. "And don't you get it, Jesse?! It's too late!"

"No, Ivor! No! It's not too late!" Jesse sobbed, running over to the golden treasure stands behind him and sitting down beside them, curling up into a ball and crying into his hands. Stampy and Stacy noticed Jesse sink down next to the treasure stands and walked over to him, with Stampy standing to his left, rubbing his shoulder with a look of concern, and Stacy standing over to Jesse's right, sharing the same concerned face that Stampy had.

"It's okay, Jesse..." Stampy tried to assure the crying brunette. "I know how it feels to lose someone you love... I lost plenty of my dogs during the time I spent in my Lovely World..."

"Go away, Stampy..." Jesse weeped, swatting the adult child's hand away from his shoulder.

"Oh, come on, Jesse! Please don't be rude!" Stampy grieved, rubbing his orange sleeve. "I'm only trying to help you..."

"I'd probably leave Jesse alone if I were you, Stampy..." Stacy suggested, dragging her childish companion away from my weeping boyfriend. "If you found out that someone you kept near and dear to your heart wouldn't be able to return to their normal size ever again, would you do the same things that Jesse is doing?"

"I'm sorry, Stacy..." Stampy sobbed, wanting to bury his leaking face in his hands. "I just wanted to make Jesse feel better, that's all..."

My attention diverted from the melancholic duo back to my crying boyfriend, Jesse, who was still choking up and shedding tears of sorrowful depression. "Petra... I am so sorry I didn't come for you in time..." He cried, wiping his tears away from his salty cheeks. "If only we could've found you sooner... But now, you're doomed to be the size of our feet forever... I'm really sorry..."

All of Jesse's friends and visitors seemed to lay equally depressed eyes on the miserable brunette and walk up to him. I knew that at this point, I was going to have to reveal myself and prove Jesse wrong. I hated seeing my best friends cry like this... It almost made me want to cry myself, and I hated doing that. I stopped peeking out of the keyhole and gave the big quartz doors the loudest knocks I could.

 ** _BANG, BANG, BANG!_**

"Who's that?" I heard Ivor ask.

"It certainly won't be Petra, that's for sure..." Jesse responded to Ivor's seemingly rhetorical question.

Boy, I really couldn't wait to cheer them all up myself... I felt my body tingling all over the place, getting all giddy, I was hoping to snatch Jesse up in the biggest hug I could and... Okay, calm down, Petra... Just approach this scenario like a completely normal person...

The huge doors to the Order Hall opened with a creak, with Jesse in front of the remainder of his friends and guests for tonight. When his leaking emerald eyes landed on my familiar, gorgeous self, the brunette in red suspenders seemed to stop crying and shed one of his many goofy smiles that I loved to see.

"Petra?" He called my name, quickly turning his sobs of misery into tears of joy.

"Jesse!" I called my boyfriend's name too, quickly snatching him up in a big hug and squeezing him to the point where I didn't want to let go.

"The girl actually made it?!" I heard Ivor exclaim in a fit of great happiness and pleasure as he joined the hug too. Soon after, everyone else joined in as well. Axel, Olivia, Nell, Stampy, Stacy, Lukas, Radar... My lungs felt like they were getting crushed from such a huge amount of people embracing me with their open arms, but since I was letting out tears of joy of my own and I was just so happy to see them all again, I didn't care.

"Oh, I've missed you guys so much!" I cried in glee and bliss, refusing to let go of them and break the hug. "I thought I wasn't going to see you again, let alone get back to my normal size!"

"Welcome back, Petra!" Radar saluted after he broke out of our big embrace. At this moment, everyone else broke up as well and put an end to the hug, their former frowns now replaced with the smiles of delight.

"But... I don't understand, how did you grow back?" Jesse asked me, trying to wipe our tear stains off of his white shirt. "Ivor told us all that it was too late and the antidote wouldn't work anymore!"

"Well, Jesse..." I started, wiping away his tears of joy while he did the same with mine. "I think you'll be happy to know that I actually remade friends with the most unlikely of allies today..."

"Go on, Petra! Tell us what happened!" Axel exclaimed, jumping up and down on the red carpet with excitement. Olivia gave him a look that some annoyed mother would give to their overly enthusiastic kid, and I just couldn't help but crack a laugh at it.

"Well, it all started when I woke up this morning and found myself in the Blaze Rods' house..." I said, making sure my brain had still remembered every single detail of my exciting day. "I found that they had kidnapped me so I could pay the consequences for dumping Aiden, who then forced me to lick his feet."

A look of revolting sickness flashed across everyone's faces when I said that, looking like they wanted to throw up right now...

"Eugh! Petra, that sounds absolutely disgusting!" Stampy said, cringing and burying his face in Stacy's shoulders.

"Believe me, Stampy, it was just as bad as you would think it was." I replied to the queasy adult in his orange cat hoodie. "Anyway, after refusing to do what this giant behemoth said, I hitched a ride on a rabbit outside his house and ran away from his gang of evil friends. After making a somewhat wet landing in a lake to escape from them, I eventually found my way back to Beacontown and found out that you had all left and plastered missing posters of me all over the place! At least, that's what I found out much later after Aiden showed up here and straight up lied to my face."

"What did the guy lie to you about?" Axel asked, plopping his knees on the ground.

"He told me that you cut my face out of all of your photos that had me in them because you didn't love me anymore." I answered the green-clothed brute's question, mimicking a pair of scissors that cut around my face. "It was enough to make me cry and run away from Beacontown..."

"Why would you listen to anything that Aiden has to say?" Lukas asked me, closing his journal and walking up to me. "You know that we'd never abandon you no matter what you did or how busy we are... Hell, we'd never even leave you behind no matter what the circumstances are!"

"You think you can save your questions for after I've told you my side of the story, Lukas?" I asked the fangirl-attracting blonde, shifting my gloved hand back to where he was standing. He pleasantly did as I told him to and returned to his spot in the line of friends in-between Nell and Radar. "I travelled what felt like miles away from Beacontown, seeking shelter underneath a fully grown mushroom until Aiden requested me to let him in."

"After everything that little slimeball told you?!" Jesse shouted, clearly annoyed about the guy coming back to me. "If I was you, I would've told him to screw off!"

"He then revealed that he had actually lied to me and wanted to get me back to my normal size and back to you!" I continued, ignoring Jesse's fit of anger. "So after a gruelling confrontation with Gill and Maya, he got me up to Ivor's house and made me drink the antidote that was resting on his table just in time!"

"So, if I didn't leave that bottle back at my house on the table, you wouldn't be where you are now?" Ivor asked me curiously. "Doomed to be the size of a mouse while I had to feel guilty for shrinking you by accident?"

"Ummm... Yeah, pretty much." I answered with a laugh.

"So, Petra dudette... Your story about how you went from being a small dudette to a big dudette in the nick of time... It seems to me that this Aiden dude had a change of heart and wanted to make up for his bad past with you, is that right?" Nell asked me, coming up in front of the rest of my friends.

"Yes, Nell. You certainly hit that nail right on the head." I replied to the blonde surfer gal.

"Anyway, Petra dudette, I'm so glad you're back!" Nell replied, embracing me in a warm hug.

I chuckled as Nell wrapped her arms around me. She let go in a matter of seconds and returned to her spot.

"I'm so glad to finally be back with you guys..." I said, blushing a bit as I stared at Jesse. "And if there's one thing that I learned the most from my time as a shrinkee, it's..." I stopped talking to let my friends volunteer on what the answer was.

"That it's never too late to make amends with an enemy?" Olivia proposed, holding up her hand.

"Hmmm... That's a good try, but nope." I replied.

"That the world's more dangerous when you're the size of our shoes?" Radar suggested with a beaming smile, holding up his hand too.

"I love your imagination, Radar... But no." I retorted.

"That being a tiny person has it's perks?" Jesse tried as his fingers played with my rosy cheeks.

"Nearly, Jesse. Nearly..." I responded.

Stampy then raised his hand, jumping up and down so that he would grab my attention the most.

"Stampy?" I asked, pointing to him.

The giddy man-child then stopped bouncing and let out his answer. "That you don't need to be a tall person to have big adventures?" He said, still unable to contain his excitement.

"Yeah. Exactly." I gladly replied as I pat his head and walked backwards to gaze at my complete lineup of friends. "And I certainly had some big adventures indeed. Most of them? Probably even more big than the ones I had in the past."

I laughed as I ran over to embrace Jesse in another hug and everyone else joined in as well. Stampy sure hit the nail on the head with his answer to my question, alright. I didn't need to be a tall person to have big adventures. Regardless if you're big or small, the world is still a dangerous place either way, and going out there to have an experience that you could never forget about... That was what I loved the most about going out and having big adventures to talk about with my friends.

* * *

 _ **THE END**_


End file.
